Welcome to Litsy!

Not what I was expecting. The subtext of the title suggests a history of alcohol and how it brought people together to help create civilization. And there are interesting tidbits of information. Like how the drive to brew intoxicating beverages had as much to do with the rise of agriculture as food. But it‘s less about history and more about the science of alcohol and its effects. Science that often reads like a school textbook.

Finished reading. Jared Diamond puts forward his thesis that geographical and environmental factors played a vital role in shaping certain regions. The last few chapters felt repetitive but overall a great book. 4/5

A fountain of knowledge, thousands of years' worth of lessons distilled elegantly in a single short book. It does, however, expect the reader to have a fundamental familiarity with particular historical events and characters. Also, the authors get extra points for adding a touch of sarcasm to the narrative. Definitely a must read!

The Age of Voltaire is book #9 of #11 in the Durants' History of Civilization series. Well-written and extremely detailed, the series is a must read for history lovers. Settle in for a long read though. Each volume is 800 -1000 pages.

Although first published in 1997, I've never got to read this one. It also includes a postface to the 2003 edition. The book revolves around the idea that historical progress, development and domination of different populations over others was fueled by their geography and not their biology.

'Over the past 13,000 years the predominant trend in human society has been the replacement of smaller, less complex units by larger, more complex ones.'

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

I feel like this was a (self inflicted) required reading to get through. Thank goodness for audiobooks and a 30 minute commute. This book provides good histories of where people came from and how we are stratified in society today, and argues against some evolutionists racist explanations. In the academic sense, this book is fantastic, however as he does in Collapse, Diamond beats a dead horse at times. Not always captivating and entertaining.

This book surprised me because I didn‘t realize that it would go back to the time of St Patrick which I enjoyed very much. However it did start slow but I learned more about Ireland/ Irish.

My dear friend gave this to me, and while I learned a lot about how some Christians might view the Jewish contributions to early western culture, I didn‘t learn a lot about what the Jewish people accomplished. I personally found the writing style irritating, I don‘t like when an author tells me to do things, and this books really needs citations.
1/5 stars. Easy to read, but not very informative

I read about half this book eons ago then set it aside and never got back to it. I remember really enjoying it (I was in school at the time, so that‘s probably why it got shelved), so I‘m glad I finally went back and finished it. Diamond lays out how differences in locations most likely led to differences in how societies moved through time, rather than inherent racial (racist) differences. 👇🏼