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Loading... Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societiesby Jared Diamond
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This is, quite simply, one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. I couldn't put it down. (  ) birdsetcetera | Nov 30, 2009 |  A very original and fascinating work that deserves careful study and consideration. (  ) millsge | Nov 26, 2009 | I'm very interested in history, ancient history, and anthropology, so this book naturally appealed to me. This book attempts to explain why people in Europe ended up colonizing and conquering most of the rest of the world. The simple answer is the title of the book, and Diamond attempts to explain why the Europeans had guns, germs and steel while other societies did not. His theory is that Europe and Asia had more natural resources, more domesticatible animals and plants, how those food sources allowed the formation of larger governments, armies, and so forth. He also explains how having access to other societies important for idea diffusion. These ideas can lead to technological inventions that can give a particular society an edge. In addition to explaining things in that manner, he also looks at Polynesian societies to explain why some were able to create larger governments. I found the book very interesting, although he has the tendency to repeat himself. I understood his central argument the first time he wrote it; it was not necessary to reiterate it over and over again in each chapter. Some of his examples are weak, and his ideas are not without criticism from trained historians and anthropologists. Still, interesting read and an interesting way to think about the domination of western civilization. (  )2  stacyinthecity | Nov 16, 2009 | A well-written exploration into the world's power struggles. (  ) checkadawson | Nov 2, 2009 | Great book! It presents history in a way that's not the typical white European way. It also argues how some society's were able to dominate others due to environmental inequalities. ( ) Anagarika | Oct 30, 2009 | 
 In ''Guns, Germs, and Steel,'' an ambitious, highly important book, Jared Diamond asks: How did Pizarro come to be at Cajamarca capturing Atahualpa, instead of Atahualpa in Madrid capturing King Charles I? Why, indeed, did Europeans (and especially western Europeans) and Asians always triumph in their historical conquests of other populations? Why weren't Native Americans, Africans and aboriginal Australians instead the ones who enslaved or exterminated the Europeans?  Jared Diamond has written a book of remarkable scope: a history of the world in less than 500 pages which succeeds admirably, where so many others have failed, in analysing some of the basic workings of cultural process. . . It is willing to simplify and to generalize; and it does reach conclusions, about ultimate as well as proximate causes, that carry great conviction, and that have rarely, perhaps never, been stated so coherently or effectively before. For that reason, and with few reservations, this book may be welcomed as one of the most important and readable works on the human past published in recent years.
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(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:55 -0400)
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