Read two somewhat related books over the holidays on the sunny (and veeery windy) island of Tenerife. «Guns, Germs and Steel» by Jared Diamond aims to explain the «fates of human societies», while «The Ascent of Money» by Niall Ferguson promises to be a «financial history of the world» (both claims aren't really true though).

Diamonds book, first published in the 1990s and a huge success, presents an explanation of why different human societies developed differently in the last 15'000 years, and why some where able to conquer (and even extinct) others. The proximate causes for this, says Diamond, are guns, germs and steel (meaning warfare skills, epidemic diseases and technological innovation). But the ultimate reason for all of these to develop more quickly in some regions than in others is, according to Diamond, food production. Different areas made the switch from hunter-gatherers to agrarian societies at different times, due to several factors, such as availability of domesticable wild plants and animals, and continent axis. The hypothesis is interesting and compelling, as long as Diamond (who is a biologist) stays in his field. But the historical chapters (on innovation or development of policital systems) are superficial, and fail to explain the huge differences in societies.

Niall Ferguson, on the other hand, is a historian - but his book isn't really a history. The book, clearly written with the ensuing BBC television series already in mind, is more a collection of anectodes and stories around the general topic of finance and money. That is often entertaining, and sometimes insightful (I particularly liked the chapter on the U.S. real estate market, which gives a good primer on the recent bubble) - but it does nothing to identify or even explain broader and longer developments.