The first great work of Braudel: although Philip II is mentioned in the title, Braudel stretches his narrative over a much larger spatiotemporal setting

Chaudhuri has done for the Indian Ocean, what Braudel did for the Mediterranean - but see also the other historians of the Indian ocean (Arasaratnam, Dasgupta, Furber, McPherson, Subrahmanyam)

Abu-Lughod connects the trading systems of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean in a single world system, and shows how until the 15th century, the world was centered around Asia

To know more about what was going on in Europe when it was still a mere appendage to the Asia-centric world system; far better than Pirenne's work on the same subject

Not really "large-scale" history, but a fascinating account of radical political ideas in 17th century England that sound surprisingly contemporary

One of the best-known British marxist historians on the pivotal event that led to the ascendancy of the west

Too often historians ignore the ecological/environmental stage in which human history is enacted - this book shows the ecological consequences of western expansion

The first of Hobsbawm's very well-known 3 volume study of the "long" 19th century (1789-1914), a period which can aptly be called the "High modern age". The follow-up study of the "Late modern age" (1914-1991, i.e., ending with the collapse of USSR) in "The Age of Extremes" is readable but very subjective.

Not history, but historiography; Carr explains why every age understands its past in its own unique way