Values and traditions--not guns, germs and steel--explain why a tiny Greece of 50,000 square miles crushed a Persia 20 times larger
This is an attack on the theory postulated by Jared Diamond in his book, Guns, Germs, and Steel--The Fates of Human Societies. Diamond maintains that differences among human societies is based on a geographical determinism. It is essentially an apologia for African backwardness. Hanson is clearly correct in arguing that it is culture which plays the principle role in forming civilizations, for good or ill.
No doubt geography and resources played a big role, in the past. Dr. Thomas Sowell also opines that Africa's geography held it back (it lacks long, slow rivers into the interior, which would support greater trade).
But in the present, oil wealth has been largely squandered. And the human resources have also been squandered. Islam's inherent cultural shortcomings are numerous, and the author is right on. A real keeper article.