Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997), adds some perspective to the current situation in the Middle East. The book explains how and why civilizations developed at varying rates. Diamond begins with a race metaphor placing the starting line at 11,000 B.C.E. The Middle East jumped out in front early, and their abilities to farm, domesticate animals, and write, lead them to cultural success. Their influence and technology helped lift Europe from the Stone age. Interesting reading.
Andrew R. Cline, Ph.D.
The Rhetorica Network
Article comments
1 - Deano
Agreed! An excellent and highly insightful read, moreso because the author seems refreshingly free of some of the limitations that occasionaly inflict more traditional historians (Diamond is an evolutionary biologist, specializing in birds. Possibly why he was able to pen such an excellent cross-disciplinary work and make it readable as well as cohesive and strong...)