Guns, Germs and Steel

Just finished one of my Christmas presents - Guns, Germs and Steel:The Fates of Human societies by Jared Diamond. Diamond expounds at length on his theories about why the dominant modern societies developed in Eurasia and not Africa, Australia or The Americas. It has some weaknesses, as the Amazon reviewers are more than happy to point out, but it's a goldmine of genuinely insightful analysis nonetheless and you should add it to the list of books you must read at some stage.