Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years (1994). Explores the role of women in early technological development, particularly textile making.

Peter Bellwood, First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies (2005). An up-to-date account of the Agricultural Revolution, considered on a global basis.

David Christian, This Fleeting World: A Short History of Humanity (2008). A lovely essay by a leading world historian, which condenses parts of his earlier Maps of Time (2004).

Steven Mithen, After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000–5000 B.C. (2004). An imaginative tour of world archeological sites during the Agricultural Revolution.

Lauren Ristvet, In the Beginning (2007). A brief account of human evolution, Paleolithic life, the origins of agriculture, and the First Civilizations, informed by recent archeological discoveries.

Fred Spier, Big History and the Future of Humanity (2011). An effort to place human history in the context of cosmic, geological, and biological history with a focus on the growth of complexity.

Mark B. Tauger, Agriculture in World History (2011). An overview of the origins and significance of farming on a global scale.

“The Agricultural Revolution,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I. An eleven-minute animated survey from John Green’s Crash Course World History series.

“Prehistoric Art,” http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHprehistoric.html#general. An art history Web site with a wealth of links to Paleolithic art around the world.