You are here  Guns, Germs, and Steel  by Jared Diamond New York:
W. W. Norton & Company, 1999. 494 pages.  Guns, Germs, and Steel
takes on the ambitious task of explaining the development of
human civilization since the Ice Age, and succeeds marvelously.
Arguing that "[h]istory followed different courses for different
peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not
because of biological differences among peoples themselves,"
Jared Diamond explains the rise of the West in terms of
geography and environment, debunking racially based theories.
Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, Guns,
Germs, and Steel was praised by E. O. Wilson for showing "how
history and biology can enrich one another to produce a deeper
understanding of the human condition."