Geography As Causal in Societal Ascendance: An Austrian Retrospective on Diamond‪.‬

I. Introduction In his book, Guns, Germs and Steel, Professor Jared Diamond argues that geography and environment are the "ultimate determinants" of the fates of societies. (1) the book can be described as focusing the on fields of environmental geography and geographical anthropology. The book explores the ascendancy of certain cultures and their dominance over competing societies. For Diamond, the broad pattern of history can be understood and explained within the context of geographical and environmental circumstances facing societies.