GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL

“Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?” That’s the question that sparked this Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Many Westerners suspect they know the answer: “We’re morally or genetically superior to those folks.” Author Diamond thinks not. We had animals one could domesticate, latitudinal expanses that allowed us to steal each other’s inventions and nasty germs. In other words: the dumb luck to be born on the right continent. Doug Ordunio reads the book as if he had written it, with the quiet passion of an erudite man. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 00]