It was very much a history of post-Roman western European high art and elite thought, though, except perhaps the final episode when he had to contend with the industrial age. Clark himself had qualms about the title, seeking to emphasise the A personal view subtitle. It's really an account of only one or two socially quite narrow strands of the historical experience of one region of the world, as which it doubtless still ranks highly but it can't claim a wider perspective (and indeed didn't, apart from the unfortunate title).

For a general introduction I'd say Felipe Fernández-Armesto's wider-ranging Millennium series is a better place to start: it doesn't cover the millennium before, of course, but then Clark skims over it in just his opening episode so the chronological difference isn't so great, whereas the thematic and geographical one is vast. General histories are inevitably unsatisfying, but I thought Millennium was a cut above the rest for all its popularising style (then again, we want history to be popular, so who am I to complain?): the book's more rewarding.