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The Geographical Review July 1999, Vol. 89 (3), pp. 391-408 ENVIRONMENTALISM AND EUROCENTRISM James M. Blaut Keywords: Jared Diamond, environmentalism, Eurocentrism, David Landes. ABSTRACT: Environmental determinism has served to validate a Eurocentric world history for several centuries, and it continues to do so today. This essay looks briefly at the historical marriage between environmental determinism and Eurocentric history, then develops a detailed critique of the environmental determinism put forward in two recent world-history books: Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997) and David Landes's The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (1998).