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 … 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 Gold Medal.
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The author covers a lot of historical space but does it so well, and the information presented was so well organized, that the book became a very enjoyable and informative read.
A logical explanation of how the various groups of humans on this Earth basically got divided into the haves and the have nots.
This is a must-read and has been for some time now.
Great book! Explains all those nagging questions like why Aborigines never developed writing or cities; why the North American natives were decimated by European diseases but Europeans weren’t wiped out by American diseases. Why Africa didn’t domesticate its abundant animal life. Why white Europeans seem to be “advanced” compared to everyone else. …
OK, I know there are many valid criticisms of Diamond. But, I read this book in 2004 when graduate school was basically killing me, and I was blown away by the sheer intellectual audacity of trying to trace the reasons why the world looks the way it does— why the rich parts of the world were rich and the poor parts of the world were poor. I was …
I read this back when it first was published so I don’t remember it very clearly. It’s very interesting and I learned a lot from it, but I felt like Diamond’s argument was motivated by his desire to be a friend to populations that had been dismissed in the past by Western, chauvinistic academics. Diamond’s heart is in the right place, I think, …
a new way to look at history.
Jared Diamond makes the reader think and think hard about how geography has shaped our world.
Incredible book. Eye-opening and informative.
Diamond poses fundamental questions. “Why did wealth and power [among nations] become distributed as they now are, rather than in some other way?” “[W]hy did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents?” “[W]hy were Europeans, rather than Africans or Native Americans, the ones to end up with guns, the nastiest germs, …
Very informative
Jared Diamond is unique. His subjects touch the core of our civilisation today. This particular one, as with most I have, is a mixture of history and perceptive observation.
Amazing ideas about how we evolved.
if you want to know why civilization emerged in the places in which it did——-this is the book to read. I must admit that in some sections it was dry reading and that it took me weeks and weeks to finish the book— and the reason for that—-I would have to stop and research—-however, it was worth the time and the read. I think readers …
Spectacularly well presented theory of the influences on cultural dominance.
It answers the question: Why did Europeans come to dominate the world? The answer is fascinating.
Mind-blowing non-fiction on why the world is as it is, taking into account geography, history, biology, anthropology, and archaeology.
offers a historical prophetic perspective that has a unique clarity and empowers.
One of my favorite books ever.
This book brings together many ideas, and illustrates the relationships between various cultures, peoples, ideas and inventions that most people probably have not realized are intertwined. It’s very interesting. I highly recommend it.