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Loading... Guns, germs, and steel : the fates of human societies (original 1997; edition 1999)by Jared M. Diamond
Work InformationGuns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared DIAMOND (1997)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Interesting, but way too drawn out and dry. The idea of "Why did X develop in one part of the world but not another?" is neat, but he has a tendency to go off-topic and get into too much unrelated detail. Also, there is a strong bias towards New Guinea. ( ) I started "Gun, Germs and Steel" with great anticipation, as this is one of the most often recommended book. Subject, prima facie, appears a bit dry, but given popularity of this book, I decided to go ahead with reading. Prologue left me with mixed and conflicting feelings. First, the problem statement, as posed by the author, that why did different regions of world evolved at different rate, and how come world is as it is, seemed to violate Anthropic Principle. That irrespective of however the civilizations could have evolved, there is only one course they could have taken, and one current state which could have been observed, and that such question could have always been asked, even if there is inherently nothing but randomness in the path chosen. Second, author's compelling motive to write this book, even admitted by him, is that alternate explanation is a racist one. Author goes on to great lengths to suggest that this book's explanation is not racist. As any alert reader can gauge, that a scientific enquiry, pre biased to seek explanation of certain form, cannot really be objective. There is unexplained and assumed obvious premise that racist explanations of the problem statement are wrong, because they are "loathsome". Why should they be? Even as author himself clarifies that explanation of worldly discrepancies in not support for such discrepancies, and that explanation of cause is not justification of outcome, he conveniently forgets that even explanation based in racists root doesn't imply condoning racism. In fact, repeated assertion that this is no racist explanation belies narrow prism of view. Third, even if I go along with author on racism, author's definition of racism is very narrow and unworthy of any intellectual. In his quest to prove himself non-racist, author goes on to suggest, on mere power of his hunch and observation, and not rooted in any scientific experiment, that native tribes of New Guinea are smarter than white Europeans, and not even blinking at apparent 'racism' inherent in this statement. In his opinion, claiming white people superior to native is racist, but vice-versa is not. Inherent imbecility of this world-view is akin to illogical excuse rendered by many people, that they cannot possibly be homophobic since they have gay friends. Fourth, last part of prologue goes onto grandiose self-aggrandising that how author is uniquely qualified, by birth and education, to undertake such monumental task of synthesizing multi-disciplinary subject of human history including evolutionary biology, linguistic, and social history. Rest of the book, though, admittedly is interesting for it provides history of various defining institutions of human civilization like tools, language, farming, diseases and organizations in very convenient way. Parts of book are verbose and obvious explanation why diseases evolved from animals to humans goes on to greater length than necessary to make the point. While at no point one comes across explicit bias and explanation pass the scientific inquiring nature of reader, one cannot help wonder if they are mere post-hoc rationalization of things that have happened in certain way, or would have happened in any one way anyway.
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. Belongs to SeriesContainsHas the adaptationHas as a reference guide/companionHas as a studyHas as a commentary on the textAwardsNotable Lists
References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English (46)History.
Sociology.
Technology.
Nonfiction.
HTML: "Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."??Bill Gates In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion ??as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war ??and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's GoNo library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)303.4Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Social Processes Social changeLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. W.W. Norton2 editions of this book were published by W.W. Norton. Editions: 0393317552, 0393061310 HighBridgeAn edition of this book was published by HighBridge. HighBridge AudioAn edition of this book was published by HighBridge Audio. |