It is a seminal book about inquiry into the way the modern world came to be shaped by environmental and geographic factors. The author suggests that the fates of societies were determined by the distribution of guns, germs, and steel among them. The book discusses why some civilizations had rapid development and dominance over others, due not to racial or genetic superiority but access to key resources that defined success. The book, in a sense, challenges the prevailing notion of European hegemony in great detail along the human history and tries to articulate a new understanding of development that covers the planet.