Currently listening to Grover Gardner reading Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel as a foray into nonfiction. From the summary the author himself gave in the opening chapters, it looks like it's going to be a fascinating take on (pre)history, tracing the "broadest patterns" that resulted in Eurasian dominance. Why was it that Eurasians were the ones to get their hands on guns, germs, and steel before anyone else, and hence were able to subsequently conquer and dominate most of the rest of the world? Diamond puts forth that it has to do, ultimately, with many factors rooted in prehistory, and not just proximate or immediate factors, which are, roughly speaking, the guns, germs and steel themselves. For example, in these past few chapters, he has been making a case for the favorable flora and fauna situation in Eurasia leading to an earlier shift in that continent from hunting and gathering into raising crops and domesticating animals. Which, in turn, of course, led to all the developments that comprise what we now usually term "civilization" with its (when you think about it) staggeringly complex relations and hierarchies and technologies.
What other works of nonfiction have you enjoyed lately or would you recommend? I'm interested in broadening my knowledge, and so works from any field, as long as they are interesting or worthwhile, are very welcome. Please leave a comment, thanks!
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