The question motivating the book is: Why did history unfold differently on different continents? (Location 74)
History before the emergence of writing around 3,000 B.C. also receives brief treatment, although it constitutes 99.9% of the five-million-year history of the human species. (Location 82)
Tags: writing, history
Note: History before writing was invented 3000 years ago receives very little attention
The history of interactions among disparate peoples is what shaped the modern world through conquest, epidemics, and genocide. Those collisions created reverberations that have still not died down after many centuries, and that are actively continuing in some of the world’s most troubled areas today. (Location 182)
History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves.” (Location 351)
Of the modern world’s 6,000 languages, 1,000 are confined to New Guinea. (Location 384)
Note: 1/6 of the worlds languages are confined to New Guinea