Guns, Germs, and Steel

Paperback

Published April 29, 2005 by W.W. Norton and Company.

ISBN:
978-0-7394-6735-0
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
370376710

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (176 reviews)

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (previously titled Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years) is a 1997 transdisciplinary non-fiction book by Jared Diamond. In 1998, Guns, Germs, and Steel won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book. A documentary based on the book, and produced by the National Geographic Society, was broadcast on PBS in July 2005.The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate primarily in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example, written language or the …

43 editions

Great overview of global history and prehistory

5 stars

I am not a historian, thus I cannot speak to the validity of specific details he provides, but Jared Diamond builds his thesis on why western societies dominate the globe today, on such solid groundwork, that I cannot imagine the broad strokes of his theory being refuted in the future. The book gives an overview about the evolutionary biology of crops and livestock, prehistory, history, geography and the influences of each field on the others. A large focus is put on the areas of Southeast-Asia/Oceania and South America. As a layman with general knowledge of the topics (I watch too much science YouTube) I found everything comprehensible, though many theses are repeated so many times, that often I got confused and could not tell wether I already read a section or not. In summary, if you are like me and watch a lot of science YouTube, this book will give …

Review of 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Thesis: accidents of geography and biogeography shaped societies. Easily domesticable plants and animals, directional axes, and randomness determined outcomes.

Likes:

- Whether or not you agree with Diamond, there’s plenty to gain from reading—so many fields are covered that you’re bound to learn from the histories of civilizations, plants, animals, inventions, etc.

- The chapter on language and writing. The possible impact on Chinese language and literacy due to their many homophones was interesting.

- The diffusion of technology, with Europe and China as an example. "China’s connectedness eventually became a disadvantage, because a decision by one despot could, and repeatedly did, halt innovation. Europe’s barriers were sufficient to prevent political unification, but insufficient to halt the spread of technology and ideas.” The many attempts of Christopher Columbus was another example.

- Some of his long tangents: purposefully inefficient keyboard design and Japanese pride of their kanji showed why different …

Review of 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I watched the documentary based on this book years ago, but finally got around to reading the book. The book was also a lot longer than it needed to be. The entire second part of the book was a repeat of the first part, with the only difference that part two was organized by continent instead of by theme. I recommend watching the documentary instead of reading the book.

Review of 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

“Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”. Yali's question serves the basis for a worldwide survey of the many factors influencing history and that determined the fates of world's power balance.

Through this amazingly thorough journey throughout history, we learn that most of what happened happened by chance, by subjecting different peoples in different continents to different conditions, conditions which were ultimately responsible for a particular set of peoples having reached the stage of dominating guns, steel and having greater immunity to certain (and very deadly germs).

This is probably one of the best books to make you rethink history under a much more naturalistic perspective, taking the thunder out of those that naively think that the real reasons for the present day status quo lie somewhere on human personality …

Review of 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Geography.

That in essence is Dr Diamond's ultimate answer for why we see such disparity in human populations today and throughout history. Europeans were able to conquer the New World and not the other way around because of geographical factors giving them numerous advantages beginning with food production and leading to technology and immunity to disease. It was not because of some innate superiority of the European people, which is often the sort of argument put forward, and in the most extreme cases, used to justify exploitation or genocide.

This is an excellent book, thoroughly researched, logically and soberly argued, and including fascinating insights gathered by the author himself in New Guinea, a microcosm of human societies. What does the future hold for human societies? While geography perhaps plays a smaller role in modern times, lessons about human societal structures produced by geography may prove invaluable for the future success …

Review of 'Guns, germs, and steel' on Goodreads

4 stars

1) ''The most dramatic moment in subsequent European-North American relations was the first encounter between the Inca emperor Atahuallpa and the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro at the Peruvian highland town of Cajamarca on November 16, 1532. Atahuallpa was absolute monarch of the largest and most advanced state in the New World, while Pizarro represented the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (also known as King Charles I of Spain), monarch of the most powerful state in Europe. Pizarro, leading a ragtag group of 168 Spanish soldiers, was in unfamiliar terrain, ignorant of the local inhabitants, completely out of touch with the nearest Spaniards (1,000 miles to the north in Panama) and far beyond the reach of timely reinforcements. Atahuallpa was in the middle of his own empire of millions of subjects and immediately surrounded by his army of 80,000 soldiers, recently victorious in a war with other Indians. Nevertheless, Pizarro captured …

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