The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to world history.

World history or global history as a field of historical study examines history from a global perspective. It emerged centuries ago; some leading practitioners are Voltaire (1694–1778), Hegel (1770–1831), Karl Marx (1818–1883), Oswald Spengler (1880–1936), and Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975). The field became much more active (in terms of university teaching, textbooks, scholarly journals, and academic associations) in the late 20th century.

Below is a structured list of topics related to world history:

World history can be described as all of the following:

• Academic discipline
  • Field of history
    • Branch of historiography

• History of the world
• Timelines of world history

• History of world history

• World History Association (WHA) – primarily American organization established in the 1980s.^[1]

• Bibliography of world history (field)

• Journal of World History – published quarterly by the World History Association since 1990.^[2]
• Journal of Global History – scholarly journal established in 2006 and is published by Cambridge University Press.

• Christopher Bayly – The Birth of the Modern World: Global Connections and Comparisons, 1780–1914 (London, 2004)
• Jerry Bentley (1949-2012) – founder and editor of the Journal of World History
• Philip D. Curtin (1922-2009) – The World and the West: The European Challenge and the Overseas Response in the Age of Empire. (2000) 308 pp. ISBN 978-0-521-77135-1. online review
• Christopher Dawson (1889-1970) –Religion and the Rise of Western Culture (1950) excerpt and text search
• Will Durant (1885-1981) and Ariel Durant (1898-1981) – Story of Civilization(1935-1975).
• Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (b.1950) – "Millennium" (1995), "Civilizations" (2000), "The World" (2007).
• Francis Fukuyama (1952– ) – The End of History and the Last Man (1992)^[3]
• Peter Haugen – professor of the University of Wisconsin; writer of World History for Dummies
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1830) – philosopher of world history^[4]
• Patrick Manning – Navigating World History: Historians Create a Global Past (2003)^[5]
• William Hardy McNeill (born 1917)^[6] – see especially The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (1963)
• Robert McNeill and William H. McNeill – The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History (2003) excerpt and text search
• Jürgen Osterhammel – The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century (2014) excerpt
• Carroll Quigley (1910-1977) – The Evolution of Civilizations (1961), Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (1966), Weapons Systems and Political Stability: A History (1983)
• Pitirim Sorokin (1889–1968), Russian-American macrosociology; Social and Cultural Dynamics (4 vol., 1937–41)^[7]
• Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) (German) – Decline of the West (1918–22) vol 1 online; vol 2 online; excerpt and text search, abridged edition
• Peter Stearns, (1936- ) (USA) – World History in Brief: Major Patterns of Change and Continuity, 7th ed. (2009); Encyclopedia of World History, 6th ed. (200pp)
• Luc-Normand Tellier (Canadian) – Urban World History, PUQ, (2009), 650 pages; online edition
• Arnold J. Toynbee (British) – A Study of History (1934–61);^[8] see especially A Study of History.
• Eric Voegelin (1901–1985) – Order and History (1956–85)^[9]
• Immanuel Wallerstein – developed the best-known version of the world-systems approach.

• History of the world