Book Review: Guns, Germs, and Steel - the Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond
A must read book for everybody who is interested in international development!
The book reviews 13,000 years of human history to illustrate why history evolved differently on different continents, resulting in European and not native American, for example, domination of the world. The book starts with the intriguing question of a native New Guinean, Yali, who wonders "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo [articles which were introduced to the local population by the first European sailors] and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?", and takes you on a journey of the origins of food production, animal domestication, germs, writing, religions, empires and guns.