>>18589726
Start with Egypt and Mesopotamia

OP, i am a generic armchair history nerd. These are the things that would have made me look less like a jackass in history discussion. (emphasis on less)

Always ask these questions about a historical person
>Who was employing or funding them?
>Who was their influence?
>What was their motivation?

For a well off Aristocrat figure
>What would they tell you was their biggest stress?

For historical terms, never ever take it at face value and ask who came up with the term and the reason
>Who coined the term "Bronze Age" and why
>Who coined the term "Middle Ages" and why
>Who called it "Protestant Work Ethic" and why

Always question things, even contrarian history
>Nero was popular with peasants
51% ? 89% ? why did it work on them?

Every thing else whether starting with Sumerians or Romans is just a matter of taste.

Tbh you have to start in the neolithic revolution and then sumeria>egypt>greece/olmec>maya>aztec-inca

Otherwise you wont really understand primordial things like why society is structured that way, the birth of castes, and the importance of power/control management.

You should start with a generalist world history source and then read more specialized books and sources on different regions and time periods.

That being said, even the best generalist world history overviews gloss over the Precolumbian Americas a lot, so whatever generalist stuff you read, also read "1491" by Charles Mann which is a intro overview on the Precolumbian Americas

Start with Marx/Engels so you learn materialist analysis.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1850/peasant-war-germany/index.htm
Good overview of a historical war, from a Marxist lens.
Then learn history and understand holistically, why things actually happen instead of just a clash of egos like Liberals view history.

As with all these threads my genuine, honest, unironic, sincere recommendation is one of those children's "Complete History of the World" A6 sized books. They're written for people who don't know anything about the subject, clearly explain what is happening without getting bogged down and lays things out in a basic timeline. From there pick up a general pop history book from the shelves of your local book shop based on what stuck out as most interesting and go from there.