this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Guns, germs, and steel. I don't usually go for this sort of historical work, but it's pretty interesting. Some good stories in there.
If you're enjoying this, I might recommend The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. Guns, Germs, and Steel was one of the first books in that genre of "where do we come from" style books I (and a ton of people) read and loved, but it gets a fair bit of flack for skipping over stuff to support their theory.
Dawn of Everything is sort of the next step from that, it doesn't explicitly refute GGS outside of a time or two they were directly wrong so much as just be much more comprehensive and point out how insanely varied our history is and that there isn't really a one size fits all story. It's weirdly conversational, I've described it as sitting in on a lecture from a really ecentric professor, and I think it's a great fit for anyone who loved how GGS opened their eyes to common threads in our history and what that might say about the world now.
im currently in ch7 of Dawn of Everything and yea I think you described it right, i feel like im in the most interesting history class of my life with this cool interesting professor. My favorite quote so far, when talking about how valuable objects might have traveled long distances without a market economy, "But lack of imagination is not itself an argument"
If you like guns germs and steel, you may also really like the hot zone by Richard Preston. I devoured that like I’ve never devoured a nonfiction book before (I usually think they’re dry)