Guns, Germs and Steel covers the history of five continents from about 100,000 years ago until the present day. Whew! I'm just about finished with the book, and it is very well-written. The biggest idea of the book is that Eurasia, in particular, Europe became dominant because of food production, the number of animals and plants available for domestication, geography and climate. The author makes very good arguments based on archeological evidence and both large and small-scale examples.
The second big idea I liked in Guns, Germs and Steel is that history could be more of a science. Although it is considered a social science, it could benefit from a better methodology. Right now, I am reading the last "epilogue" section discussing the similarities between countries becoming dominant and large companies.
The other book I read yesterday was the 146 page, Sh**t My Dad Says. A New York Times' bestseller, I thought it would be filled with all the sorts of things my dad or your dad typically says. However, the title should have tipped me off; my dad did not swear every single time he imparted his own version of wisdom. While I laughed out loud a few times, it was hard to get past the blue streams of ranting.
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