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Loading... Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997)by Jared Diamond
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No current Talk conversations about this book. A very good book, with fascinating and convincing concepts, somewhat marred (particularly towards the end) by excessive repetition. It seems he took the advice to "tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them" a little too much to heart. The last two chapters, in particular, replicate his arguments about the east-west expanse of Eurasia being one of the major factors in its quick advance almost word-for-word - between the chapters, and from the early presentation of the idea and the more detailed discussion of it in the middle of the book (several times, with different supporting evidence). It got positively boring, which is not what I expected from the earlier parts of the book. I'm not sure I precisely agree with him - wish there were more controls, like another east-west expanse (apparently Australia doesn't count because it's too small). It's awfully easy to find reasons why things turned out the way they did - what's hard is determining the real reasons. Diamond presents good arguments for his chosen factors, and they seem reasonable at least at the grand-sweep level of detail he presents, but I'd like to see more evidence and more possibilities. Why did every continent except Eurasia lose most of its large fauna at the end of the Ice Age? He suggests it's because the Eurasian animals had had more contact with man and knew to avoid him (in a single mention early on - after that the fact of the extinctions is accepted without discussing the why). It may be that we'll never know the answer, or there is no answer - just chance. Diamond, at the very least, raised some very good questions, and knocked holes in quite a few racist arguments. Interesting, and I may reread - but if I do, I think I'll skim the last few chapters at most, and possibly skip them entirely. (  ) jjmcgaffey | Mar 10, 2014 |  A good book, I throurly enjoied his way of thinking and ansering a question, simple as it was. The focus on south-east aisa was a focus on a area of the world frenquently passed over until european arrival. 5/5 stars (  ) Colin5038 | Feb 4, 2014 | Take after finishing - good information well documented. An antidote to racialist thought. But very hard to get through. (  ) dcornwall | Jan 11, 2014 | Diamond explicates his premise that society’s development in the world followed a single pattern dependent upon factors of geography, geology, and the availability of natural resources that could be domesticated and more easily utilized, leading to sedentary populations overtaking hunter-gatherer ones. The key to advancement is the accumulation of food stores beyond subsistence levels within a tribe/clan, achieved by domesticating cereals (largely) and beasts suitable for burden and transportation. From that state, populations rapidly expand; bureaucracy, specialists, and a standing military arise; writing and technology develop. Concomitantly, with increasing population density and the proximity of domesticated animals, germs that elicit epidemic diseases proliferate. The end result is that technology produces guns, high population densities produce germs capable of overwhelming unexposed societies, and contending population centers produce innovative technology (steel). The civilization that stays ahead in those three areas predominates. Thus advancement has nothing to do with race, only abundance, adaptability, and timing. Diamond quickly establishes a formula to develop his thesis that rapidly becomes repetitive and predictable. The book could have been half its length by simply applying his reasoning formula to each title topic once, offering archaeological and linguistic evidence to support examples from history that illustrate each, bring up some troubling apparent exceptions and dismiss those, and wind up (as he does in the book) with “where do we go from here” speculation. Why GGS won a Pulitzer, I don’t know. Personal, and admittedly insightful, anecdotes about New Guineans are not enough to make the book prize-worthy. There is no artistry in the writing and the content is largely common sense connections that I’m sure I’m not the only one who had made already. ( ) Limelite | Oct 7, 2013 | An epic piece of multi-disciplinary research powerful enough to make you reconsider everything you thought you knew about the human race. ( ) dele2451 | Oct 6, 2013 |
 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. Has the adaptationIs abridged inHas as a studyHas as a commentary on the text
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