It was the preface of a book called Guns, Germs & Steel by a left-wing nincompoop named Jared Diamond.
It would take pages for me to describe all the stupid, wrong-headed and crazy assumptions and theories this guy espouses, but the executive summary is this: western Europeans are among the dumbest people on Earth, who have only succeeded in prevailing over the other races because they cheat.
Afterward helping her with her homework related to the reading assignment, she wanted to talk more about it. The discussion went in several directions, and at one point I asked her "why did the Chinese emperors forbid their navy from exploring the world, and why did they build a huge wall to keep out invaders?"
She said (somewhat uncertainly) "Because they were ethnocentric?"
To which I replied with this question: "what's the difference between ethnocentrism and racism."
At which point she said "I need to go to sleep."
Reminds me of the nonsense my nieces talk about.
Be careful my friend...your daughter is already half way indoctrinated.
When she starts talking “Justice”, you are too late.
One of the antidotes to Jared Diamond is Victor Davis Hanson, in particular his book Carnage and Culture.
The antidote for U.S. history instruction similar to Diamond’s (which would be Howard Zinn, for instance) would come from Larry Schweikart, AKA Free Republic’s own LS, in particular his Patriot’s History of the United States.
Dumb, how? Cheated, how?
The impression other people get from the book is that Westerners were lucky, or fortunate, or blessed by geography and climate in a way that other peoples weren't.
I don't know if that's true or not, but it might lead students to think a little. And what's the alternative, anyway? That they succeeded because they were smarter than everybody else?