Guns, Germs and Steel | Jared Diamond

Why did Eurasians conquer Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse?

Diamond dismisses racially-based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors responsible for history’s broadest patterns.

For example, there were far more domesticable plants and animals in Euro-Asia than in Africa and Australia, and to have domesticated crops and herds means you can support larger populations, which means there is a division of labor to create a complex economy that leads to the production of guns and steel. And germs come with the large populations.

This book is rich in dramatic revelations that challenge conventional wisdom.