The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection

This book is a speedrun of human history that essentially sidelines the Americas and Sub-Saharan Africa until recent centuries. It's an accessible history, with the tradeoff that most of the book lacks citations and is replete with sweeping assertions with little backing. It's somewhat understandable - covering 50,000 years in a single book adequately is basically impossible - but the lack of coherent analysis to tie together disparate geographies and time periods position the book more as a historical index. Identifying events that you want to follow up on with further reading is probably the best way to approach this book.