ismael chang ghalimi

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today, Jacques-Alexandre and I were discussing about how the reading of a single book or article can expand one’s views in major ways. Last year, one such book for me was Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. This book written by one of America’s most eminent evolutionary biologists is an attempt at explaining why some human societies prevailed, while others did not. Interestingly enough, the French translation is titled “De l’inégalité parmi les sociétés”, which indeed brings a very French perspective to the study of mankind’s history. The author recently published a follow-up to this book—Collapse, which tries to explain how societies choose to fail or succeed. I just got a copy and will provide a review as soon as I’m done reading it.

A very good book indeed, which gives answers to important questions that everyone had in mind a long time ago, and that we neglegted to answer by ourselves.