Jared Diamond

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

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This book attempts to answer the question of why Europeans were successful in colonizing the rest of the continents, and in doing so, it traces the epic history of human migration around the globe. Diamond’s takeaway is that European dominance had nothing to do with cultural superiority, intelligence, or grit, but rather with region-specific geography, flora, and fauna. Published in 1997, it is out of step with current anthropological research and thinking, but if you keep that in mind, it nevertheless offers a compelling read.

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