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| Guns, Germs and Steel | 
 enlarge | Author: J. Diamond
Publisher: W.W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: £19.45
Buy Used: £11.88
You Save: £7.57 (39%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 565465
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0393038912
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.4
EAN: 9780393038910
ASIN: 0393038912
Publication Date: May 9, 1997
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Dust Cover Missing. Ex-Library Book Will contain Library Markings. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company.
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Life isn't fair--here's why: Since 1500, Europeans have, for better and worse, called the tune that the world has danced to. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond explains the reasons why things worked out that way. It is an elemental question, and Diamond is certainly not the first to ask it. However, he performs a singular service by relying on scientific fact rather than specious theories of European genetic superiority. Diamond, a professor of physiology at UCLA, suggests that the geography of Eurasia was best suited to farming, the domestication of animals and the free flow of information. The more populous cultures that developed as a result had more complex forms of government and communication--and increased resistance to disease. Finally, fragmented Europe harnessed the power of competitive innovation in ways that China did not. (For example, the Europeans used the Chinese invention of gunpowder to create guns and subjugate the New World.) Diamond's book is complex and a bit overwhelming. But the thesis he methodically puts forth--examining the "positive feedback loop" of farming, then domestication, then population density, then innovation, and on and on--makes sense. Written without bias, Guns, Germs, and Steel is good global history.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 113 more reviews...
 Good history, but not the complete story? November 12, 2008
At the simple level, this book is a tour de force of the history and geography of mankind, and of how the latter has helped to shape the former. It is a book that everybody should read, if only to counterbalance the eurocentric versions of world history that dominate the bookshelves. Diamond explains how accidents of plant and animal distribution gave some peoples the advantages in agriculture and hence population density that they needed to conquer others, and most interestingly, led them to develop world-conquering diseases.
However, I was a little wary when the author of a science book sets out with a political aim, namely to prove that the present observed inequalities in wealth, goods and technology between peoples of the world are entirely explained by the environment. Put simply, Diamond tries to settle the 'nature-nurture' debate once and for all in the favour of nurture. While I think he makes a compelling case why Australasia never developed agriculture and the technologies that spring from it, the argument is much thinner in the case of Africa and the Americas. Why, for example, in continents that lacked suitable horses or oxen to provide mechanical power were there no attempts to develop water-wheels or windmills?
While many of Diamond's observations about the three major land-masses on Earth are undoubtedly correct, there is no reason why these could not coexist with other explanations, such as genetic differences between the capabilities and behavioural preferences of different peoples. And if they were to coexist, there is a likelihood that natural advantages would reinforce the rate at which genetic differences developed and diverged. In order to prove that the wealth differences are entirely the result of the environment, Diamond would also need to disprove that there are any genetic differences, something that he fails to do. I'm afraid that the only argument he proposes against genetic contributors, namely "because they are supported by racists", while it may be true, doesn't cut the mustard intellectually. No, he needs to demolish the genetic argument systematically, citing references from equally reputable peer-reviewed journals.
Sometimes the holes in his argument are in what is omitted, rather than in factual content (which is, by and large, impeccable). For example, he stated that the native people of New Guinea were likely more intelligent on average than native Europeans, because the former have much greater natural selection pressures placed upon them, both from the environment, and from the much higher murder rate. In doing so, of course, he avoids the possible effects of sexual selection for intelligence over the last 10000 years: in the West, the preference of women for wealthy men, who have the resources to support more children, must surely have influenced the population's genetic profile. Likewise, the harsh winters in Eurasia seem to have led to resource-storing behaviours in the North, and this ability to defer gratification, which has at least in part a genetic root, has contributed to Eurasian numeracy, inventiveness, capitalisation, finance, trade, and other behaviours that have led to us having all the 'cargo'.
In summary, this book is a notable achievement, and a very worthwhile read. However, while it contributes much to the debate on the varying fortunes of the peoples on different continents, it fails in its political aim, that of proving that genetic differences have played no part in the matter.
 Plants, animals and farming June 28, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Have you ever wondered why the world has developed the way that it has? Why some cultures and peoples seem to have prospered better than, or even at the expense of, others? If so, Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond is a book I would recommend to you. It is deeply thought provoking and well written, squeezing a history of humankind's development over the past 13,000 years into around 400 pages, which, as Diamond points out, is about 150 years per page, so not a small feat.
The basic premise of the book is that all of the worlds more advanced societies, including both those still present today and those that have disappeared into history, needed a set of complementary enablers (Ultimate Factors) to be present to allow them to develop from the original state of hunter-gatherers, from which base all people originally started. The thing that surprised me about this was just how short this list of required enablers is and as a result just how unlikely/fortunate it was that many different and varied societies did develop at all.
From the Ultimate factors, Diamond draws out a series of sequential proximate factors that lead to such historical events as European settlers not managing to settle the vast majority of the African continent or New Guinea, the decimation of the original inhabitants of North America - mostly through diseases introduced from the Old World. And, many more.
In brief, a selection of these factors include:
*The geography of any given area and the plant and animal species supported; how many of the originally wild animal species would prove suitable for domestication; How many wild plants would be worth planting - rather than say, going hunting?
*If you had enough plants and animals to domesticate, would you give up being a hunter gatherer?
*If you became a farming society would you produce enough spare food to support none-food producing crafts; politicians and artisans?
*If you did support none-food producing peoples would this eventually lead to a large dense and sedentary society etc etc
One of the many things that I really liked about this book was that it is not written from an Anglo-Saxon perspective, which is very refreshing. Further, although the book isn't, I believe, intended to be a scientific text on the matter, Diamond does provide extensive references for further reading should anyone wish to do so.
I read this book having (relatively) recently finished reading Pathfinders by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and found the two books to be very complementary. I would recommend this book and Pathfinders to anyone with an interest in history, politics or humanity in general.
Enlightening May 30, 2008
Wow. Well I have always wondered in the back of my mind why the continents have spanned out as they have, and as only great scientists can Mr Diamond has got round to answering in a hugely ambitious and incredibly fact-filled fascinating book.
I can't really say anything that hasn't been said here already but most importantly for me this book has reignited a passion for human history in me and that is achievement enough.
 Educational, thought provoking. May 1, 2008
Why are some parts of the world more advance than others?
A cursory analysis would yield the following suggestions:
1. Some parts of the world have better weapons i.e. guns
2. Some parts of the world have more complicated viruses and bacteria i.e. germs
3. Some parts of the world had an industrial revolution i.e. steel.
This book goes a step deeper and explores the reasons why some parts of the world got these competitive advantages.
The central part of the hypotheisis is that Eurasia had a better ecology and a hole host of benefits spawned from this - not all of which are obvious.
Eurasia (especially the fertile crescent) simple had a good permutation of land, rivers, mountains and climates that produced favourable conditions for a wide range of crops and plants. These favourable conditions also meant a greater range of domesticated animals. For example, most animals over 100KG were first domesticated in Eurasia. This includes, sheep, goats, cattle, horses and donkeys. All this meant, the transition from hunter - gatherer to agrarian lifestle was made sooner. With a sedentary lifestyle comes, population growth, societal organisation, and trade specialisation. But all of this was a indirect result of an act of nature, there was nothing innately special about home euroasio!
With stable sedentary societies, technological progress was inevitable. As were a wide range of germs due the range of domesticated animals and man's closer proximity to them. The complex arrangement of mountains of rivers gave rise to separate cultural and ethnic groupings and eventually nation states. Competition between them, ensured rulers had to innovate or else be face being wiped out by a grouping better organised in what became an almost Darwinian struggle - rewarding societal success and punishing societal failure.
We all know that to understand the present, we sometimes need to understand the past. The question is, how far back in past do we need to go? Well, this book would make me think that when it comes to the comparative evolution of societies, we certainly need to go right back to Pleistocene, have a look at mother nature and take a cue from there.
Want something for your mind to chew on, go for it. You'll enjoy this book.
Educational revelation April 13, 2008
Not being a student of history, I found this book to be an education into the macro history of the last 13,000 years, how some cultures prosper and others flounder. The theories of the author make absolute sense; such that by the end, it was like a door had been opened, enabling a clear view of these large scale historical and cultural patterns.
At times, I found the section covering the rise of food production to a be a ittle cumbersome and the last couple of chapters tend to repeat the same theories, but all in all a fascinating and highly educational read.
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