Guns, Germs, and Steel

I finally finished reading Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs, and Steel. I highly recommend this book.

It had the paradoxical properties of being difficult to read yet impossible to put down, because Diamond uses many detailed and dry examples to paint a fascinating picture. Basically it took me a few months to read it in 30 minute increments, compared to the "average book" that might take me a couple weeks to read in 90 minute blocks.


From the Wikipedia summary:

According to the author, an alternative title would be: "A short history about everyone for the last 13,000 years". But the book is not merely an account of the past; it attempts to explain why Eurasian civilization, as a whole, has survived and conquered others, while refuting the belief that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies do not reflect cultural or racial differences, but rather originate in environmental differences powerfully amplified by various positive feedback loops.