Guns, Germs, and Steel

Recommended by my dad and by Martin, a very interesting book that answers the question “Why did we Europeans reach such an advanced stage, and other peoples not?” In short, it is luck. We had the best seeds to cultivate and animals to domesticate, Eurasia ran east-west along the same latitude, so there were fewer problems with habitats, and sedentary life developed more easily. That allowed inventions to emerge and society to progress quickly.

The wiki page is very detailed for the recap: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armi,_acciaio_e_malattie

Interesting, well written, maybe a bit long-winded. Toward the end I was getting tired, since the book’s theme was clear. Still, it tells interesting stories, from Native Americans to the Maori to Central Africa, and how similar scenarios unfolded in similar ways, but then took different paths.