Guns, Germs and Steel


I briefly mentioned Jared Diamond's influential 1997 book Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. The book tackles 'big questions' such as why Europe conquered the world and not the other way around, why the indigenous populations of the Americas succumbed to European diseases (and not the other way around), why technological diffusion has more often moved on a East-West axis rather than North-South and other similar meta-history' questions.  Geography and climate plays a big role in his version of events. If you want the short version, visit the PBS website built for a documentary on the book and (even more distilled) read this interview with Diamond.

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