The Fates of Nations: A Biological Theory of History is a 1980 book by Paul Colinvaux, professor of ecology at Ohio State University.

The book is a theory of history from an ecologist's perspective, arguing that the fundamental structure and constraints of human breeding habits can explain much of the ebb and flow of human history.

Published 17 years before Guns, Germs, and Steel (and now out of print), it is broader in scope and more politically incorrect, dealing with and explaining such issues as the prevalence of infanticide throughout human history, and the rise of religion.

Some major points: The squirrel is highly tuned to a very specialized profession.

[It follows that] the numbers of any kind of squirrel that may live are fixed.