Guns, Germs and Steel

An exhaustive look at the history of human society, with an attempt to explain global inequality in that light. Diamond's basic theory is that favourable environmental conditions led to more harvestable crops and more large, domesticable animals evolving in Eurasia, especially in the Fertile Crescent. This gave the societies living there, starting with the Mesopotamians, an evolutionary ‘leg up' that allowed them to develop more complex, technologically advanced societies, which gave them more access to guns, germs, and steel, which ultimately led to European societies becoming world powers.

I had this on my nightstand for a couple of years, picking it up now and then and reading sections of it. It's an interesting text, but goes on rather long and presents its ideas as being more revolutionary than they are (I know that my Intro to Anthropology class I took in first year university covered a lot of the same ground). I know elements of this theory have factored into some of the science fiction novels I've read in the past, as well, such as Sawyer's Neandertal series. Still, Diamond presents the information well and includes lots of personal anecdotes that help the statistics and facts flow a bit more easily.