“Guns, Germs, and Steel”
My impression was that Diamond says that people or cultures don’t influence their path to greatness or insignificance, it is geography that does this. He also seems to be saying that individuals cannot influence their path, that only the State can be a counterweight to the large forces of geography.
It rubs me the wrong way.
I also readily admit that part of my hostility towards him and his work is likely due to a knee-jerk revulsion of the leftist embrace of his ideas.