Why Countries in Crisis Could Use Something Like Therapy

Jared Diamond made his name as a geographical determinist. In his 1997 book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, the University of California at Los Angeles professor observed that, because Europe and Asia—unlike Africa or the Americas—stretch across roughly the same latitude, the plants and animals that were domesticated in one part could be spread quickly to others.

An abundance of food, he wrote, gave inhabitants of ancient Eurasia the time and energy to invent the guns and steel that they used to conquer much of the rest of the world. Meanwhile, their exposure to domesticated animals gave them immunity to germs that wiped out the populations they encountered.