Verkottunut ihmiskunta

What a pleasant overview of human history in reasonably small number of pages – just 480 pages of loosely set text to cover everything from ancient times to the fall of the Soviet Union.

The McNeills seem to do a good job here, when they focus on how the emerging networks shape the human history. It's a broad view, but I think it gives a good overall understanding of why the world turned out the way it did.