wow, i just finished one of the greatest books ive ever read, entitled "Guns, Germs, and Steel". It enihilates any arguement that supports racist ideas and in a short 500 pages outlines the development of civilization on every continent. It is on the premise of a question "why did Europe advance so far beyond the Americas and Africa" and very logically explains it. If you've read it, discuss, if not, pick it up!

Who is it by?

And, briefly, how did the author answer the central question?

__________________
Faint as a will o' the wisp
Crazy as a loon
Sad as a gypsy serenading the moon

Ah yes, I vaguely remember that book... *goes to look*
Its by Jared Diamond, but I forget how he proves his point... from what I remember, it was a good, decently thought-provoking read.

__________________

Andrey wrote:

Plus the little kid probably deserved it. He's like 12-13 yet he's talking about using words that even his mom and dad would say were too rude.

RAINBOW DOLPHINS

I've read a review, and part of it, and if I remember correctly, Europe advanced so quickly becuase it was more or less even temperature and climate across the entire continent, which allowed for ideas to be further spread due to them having more use elsewhere. North America, South America, and Africa had different climates across the continents, which slowed down the transfer of ideas because they were of little use, relatively, the farther south or north you went. There was something about how diseases affected the people, and something about languages, but I don't remember what they were.

__________________

yah, the most important points were that the development of society was circumstancial, not due to the intelligence of the individual peoples. It says that the fertile crecent was the first area of food production not because its people were smartest but because there were up to 50 available wild cereals and 5 available large mammals for domestication. Now his arguement is far more complicated, so don't think that my explanation is anywhere near as thought out or in depth as his.