Well, there’s Jared Diamond’s _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ which has been
mentioned here several times. There’s a nice bite-size version of
this (along with fairly recent comments from many people such as Greg
Benford and Kevin Kelly) in Diamond’s paper "Why Did Human History
Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years?"
at http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/diamond/diamond_p1.html
It’s interesting, although it may not have the academic rigor you
might be looking for.
Mark Crosby
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