Last week we had a suggestion about a top 10 political book thread. I think 10 is too many to digest at once, and we'd be better served if it were focussed by topic. So, I had to jump the gun and put up a couple of my favorite political history books.
How, why and where civilizations rise. Short answer: Food and technology. More specifically: complex societies require the availability of sufficient and diverse protein and carbohydrates, or else they have no opportunity to arise, let alone develop. Anthropology, linguistic analysis, genetic tracking, movements of historic populations, these are all ideas that have progressed enormously since I was in High School. Diamond's GG&S; provides an essential foundational reading to understand the rest of history.
Why did North America become highly developed, despite the poverty of resources on the Eastern Seaboard? Conversely, why is South America poorly developed despite the huge wealth discovered by the Incas and exploited by the Spanish conquistadors? Uruguayan journalist, Eduardo Galeano's question ends up describing the answer. This book is a great manifesto of exploitation vs development, and a great introductory history of Latin America.
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