Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Guns, Germs, and Steel — Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a New York Times Bestseller with over two million copies sold — offers a groundbreaking explanation of why some civilizations came to dominate others.

In this landmark work, Jared Diamond rejects racist theories of human progress, instead showing how geography, climate, and access to domesticable plants and animals shaped the development of societies. Beginning 13,000 years ago, he traces how certain regions advanced from hunting and gathering to agriculture, leading to the rise of technology, writing, government, and warfare — and ultimately, the global inequalities that define our modern world.

Brilliantly researched and powerfully written, this classic reshapes our understanding of human history and civilization’s divergent paths.