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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 303.4 EAN: 9780393317558 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0393317552 Label: W. W. Norton & Company Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 480 Publication Date: April 01, 1999 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Studio: W. W. Norton & Company Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years. Product Description: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. 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 Gold Medal. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - No Book is More Important With over 1,000 reviews on Amazon it is quite unlikely you will read anything different in my review than all the other five star reviews. I must say that Jared Diamond has written an extraordinary book. The question he tackles with GGS is, "Why and how did wealth and power develop in some areas and not in others." Diamond concludes that wealth and power can be contributed to several factors: an East/West axis, domesticable plants and animals, this results in food surpluses and thus ... Read More Rating:  - Evil white men make the world a better place for everyone This poor pampered professor while struggling at his work strolling along a beach in New Guinea is posed the question as to why Eurasian cultures have succeeded with technological developments but others haven't. IN over 300 pages he struggles to present an answer that could be presented in one sentence. Its their BRAINS - they are wired differently This is not racist. Its clear there are many physiological differences amongst various races. Eurasians for whatever reason ... Read More Rating:  - Fascinating but repetitiveI won't give a synopsis of the book as there are plenty of other good reviews that cover that. I'll just say I found this book to have a fascinating and compelling argument for why history has gone the way it has. I did not find it to be racist or even biased as the author goes to great lengths to explain his every viewpoint and provides plenty of valid reasons against any kind of bias. The biggest flaw of the book, in my mind at least, is that it is terribly repetitive. Diamond repeats ... Read More Rating: - European AdvantagesProfessor Diamond takes up a very difficult question that spans centuries. He sets out to figure out why the Europeans were able to succeed not only in their enviornment, but control throughout the world. Geography is something Diamond finds as a major factor. Geographic luck was able to determine that type of crops, and the conditions. Diamond concludes that once the societies discovered how to produce enough food for themselves, then some of the other citizens were able to use ... Read More Rating: - Why some societies advance faster than others.It comes down to farming. Whoever farms first wins. Whichever society can not have to worry about what they are going to eat every day has the time to devote to innovation. The author's theory on a society's proximity to the equator does have some merit. I would have liked to have seen more discussion on how a society can hold itself back, such as Chinese rulers who burned their ships and stopped trade. |
