Another sweeping, extraordinary tour of human history by Mr Diamond. History has become increasingly interesting to me (in my old age no doubt) and he makes it doubly interesting by couching it in a larger argument about the perilous course of the modern world. He even manages to leave the reader with a shred of optimism after pointing out the parallels between rampant present day resource depletion and the same depletion that preceded the collapse of numerous previous human civilizations.