In my class (that I used to teach) I dealt with food and early military power and intuitively KNEW Jared Diamond was wrong-—but didn’t have specific evidence. This is it. Victor Hanson is right, it is culture not “luck.”
Diamond isn’t wrong about everything. There’s a lot of good info in his book, although there is a complete lack of footnotes as to where he gets his “facts”. And of course it works both ways, environment determines culture to a large degree (see my post above). But some of his conclusions are dubious.
Thanks LS, I've never been a fan of Diamond.