I'm skeptical of Guns, Germs and Steel. I'm pretty skeptical of environmentalism (as opposed to hereditarianism). long review has good criticism. To name a few, (because it's more than two hours) this book is environmental determinism (it doesn't allow genetics to mean anything in the development of human societies), has quite a few just-so stories (Zebras can't be domesticated because they're mean? Germans tamed them for riding which suggests you could breed the friendliest for domestication), he has suggested reading rather than conventional sources.
CGP Grey is rather smart and I enjoy his content, but his source is rather weak.
i think the phrase "cant tame zebras" was shortened from "niggers cant tame zebras", but the 'niggers' was assumed back in the glory days of the empire, and the british already had horses, so why bother with zebras? Hell, africans had to be taught iron smelting 30 years ago, and they still have trouble remembering all the steps.
(post is archived)