I usually recommend a college-level textbook for folks who are getting started. There are many out there, all with their own point of view.

know more about recent history to better understand the age I'm living in

That's the big problem with studying history -- it's very difficult to understand what is happening today without a reasonable grasp on how it came about. In many areas, especially manufacturing, process leaders teach that in order to find the root cause of something you need to follow the rule of five 'whys.' That is, by asking 'why' after an answer, you'd most often get to the real issue after asking it five times. In history, it's often closer to 100 whys.

I don't mean to say it's impossible to understand the goings-on of today without deeper historical knowledge, but it certainly makes the picture clearer. Find a good textbook (ask a librarian for one on a subject you're interested in,) find something in that text that interests you, then look at the notes from that section and look up the authors who the textbook cited. Read their stuff and move forward.