Books by Ian Morris

1. Ian Morris, Geography is Destiny: Britain and the World: A 10,000 Year History .  None of the book is bad, and half is quite interesting.  Think of the treatment as “Deep Roots for Brexit,” though willing to noodle over earlier and more interesting topics in history.  From a good FT review by Chris Allnutt: “Morris succeeds in condensing 10,000 years into a persuasive and highly readable volume, even if there are moments that risk a descent into what he seeks to avoid: “a catalogue of men wit...

The author is Ian Morris and the subtitle is How Social Development Decides the Fate of Nations .  I don’t like the subtitle of this book, which I feel should include the word “energy.”  While a number of topics are covered, the core parts of the book concern the importance of energy sources for early economic development.

Most of the book is intelligent, well-sourced, easy to read, and non-dogmatic.  It is a "big book" on the scale of Jared Diamond or Paul Kennedy and the author is obviously highly intelligent.  There is a good use of archaeology and mostly the author supports geographical theories of the rise of the West and other civilizations.  It considers energy use, urbanization, and war-making explicitly, all pluses in my view.  Eventually you realize it is going nowhere and has only a weak theoretical fra...