Why did some societies acquire the power to conquer others? It is tempting to answer with the names of great leaders, brilliant inventors, or victorious armies. Jared Diamond asks us to look further back: what made those armies, inventions, and political systems possible in the first place? Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies explores the environmental conditions behind unequal historical outcomes. This BookGistX summary explains its central argument, three key lessons, and the important limits of its ambitious approach. Author: Jared Diamond First published: 1997 Categories: History, Anthropology, Geography, Nonfiction Recognition: 1998 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction Read time: Approximately 6 minutes Guns, Germs, and Steel in One Sentence Diamond argues that geography, available domesticable species, and the spread of food production helped create unequal concentrations of military and political power, rather than innate differences in intelligen...