Yes, I have found the same problem of generalization in quiet enough books that I read ( and maybe that's why I tend to leave many of them aside now). But I still find a few interesting and stimulating texts from time to time, especially if the author can engage the historical and the philosophical/religious perspective of an era, which is a challenge by itself. I always found very boring the overemphasizing on the economic factors that can produce social changes, overemphasizing which characterizes I think most of today's attempts to analyze a society, a quiet materialistic viewpoint.
But what about the ideas (or even myths) of a society, especially of the premodern societies? This can be an at least equally fruitful way of writing about a historical period, and getting of course a more truthfull glimpse of its worldview.