This book caused quite a stir a few years ago (actually it’s already 13 years), and people and commentators world wide loved to talk about it. Guns, germs and steel is a very ambitious piece that seeks to boil world history down to a few, hard baseline facts. The author, a scientist, argues that people are equally smart, talented and entrepreneurial everywhere on the planet. What has led to certain parts, i.e Eurasia, gaining prominence over others are a few basic factors: guns, germs and steel.
It is a pretty dense read – sometimes it feels like tackling a college textbook. When reading it, I felt that yeah, this guy is making a pretty solid case for what he’s arguing about. Now, a couple of weeks later, I can’t help but think that the author missed the whole point of human history.
People make history, history doesn’t make people.
If you’re in the market for a challenging but rewarding read, this would be a good pick-up. My main gripe about it is its weight. See, I carried the darn thing to the Annapurna Base Camp and back.
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