This books explores the geographic fatalism behind the European dominance of the world in the recent past.

great book, but at some point towards the end, I put it down for too long, lost the thread and never picked it up again.

Why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents? Rather than providing a biological (racial) answer, Diamond claims that environmental factors account for the differences—as a professor of geography perhaps any other answer would sound unconvincing. Diamond attempts to sweep broad areas of history, the last 11,000 years or so, to provide some explanation.

A chief insight is the concept of underlying factors behind the proximate causes of events, like the European domination of the Americas. Guns, germs and steel constitute the proximate causes that are available because: 1) of the number of suitable plant specifies available for domestication which lead to 2) food surpluses, and in turn lead to 3) large, dense, stratified societies which could 4) develop the technology to create ocean-going ships and guns and steel weapons.

no wonder he got the MacArthur grant… insightful and extremely ambitious in scope, he succeeds in every way.

I’ve found myself choosing to doze rather than read this on the T, so, maybe it’s not the best commute choice in these days of exhaustion. It’s very text-book-ish. The only part I perked up at was the evolution of animals! I do want to finish it soon though because next up is Steven Pinker’s Language Instinct!

Uses geography to explain the different fates of the human societies of the various continents. Plenty of interesting speculations. More breadth than depth.

Makes more sense than assuming that a whole population consists only of idiots.