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Summary: Thought provoking synthesis of human biology and history
Review: As a evolutionary biologist I found Guns, Germs and Steel an excellent read and very thought provoking. As some of the few critics have pointed out, some of his ideas are not new. What is new is that Diamond was able to bring all these ideas together and synthesize them into something quite new and fasinating. The development of human cultures was surely influenced by geography and environment. Diamond has given an incredibly well thought out explanation and theory. The book might seem to some a bit long, perhaps repetitive, but I found it engrossing. It provoked thought (it now makes sense why native Americans were so suseptible to European diseases and not so much the reverse!), overturned my previously held beliefs and meshed human biology and history very well. A must read for biologists, historians, and the general public. And as to the rare reviewer who suggests the book is 'politically correct', from most of their reviews, I have gotten the feeling they hate it because it threatens their closely held world views. All the more reason it deserves the accolades it has received!
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Summary: Inspiring thoughts on how our human societies came about
Review: Diamond explores how and why our human societies evolved so differently as they did. What makes this book an interesting read is that Diamond tries hard to keep the arguments as objective as possible. He usually starts a new thought with some relevant and often provoking questions. Not only does this make the text stimulating to read, but it helps the reader compare his thoughts with the extensive answers that Diamond provides. If you are ready to take a "walk" through 13000 years of history you will discover lots of new ways to look at the world we live in.
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Summary: Extremely interesting
Review: Guns, Germs, and Steel examines broad patterns of history: the spread of human populations, the spread of food production, and the recent European dominaton. Diamond explains how these patterns arose from geography, not from differences among people, attacking the roots of racism. The book very well written, discussion many aspects of the interaction among groups and races, and should greatly reduce your doubt that Europeans were merely lucky.
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Summary: Tour-de-force
Review: This is a real tour-de-force. Jared Diamond is one in a million, w/expertise in linguistics, New Guinea, anthropology, evolution and more. Drawing on all of these areas and others, he gives the only convincing explanation I've read of why Eurasian technology & culture have come to dominate the world. For those like me who enjoy reading about natural history, this is a genuinely fascinating book.
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Summary: Original subtitle was better
Review: The original subtitle to this book was "the history of everybody for the last 13,000 years." But, Diamonds American editors thought that too dry for the US publication and gave it the rather silly current subtitle. The book is absolutely worth a read and while not a radical departure from other works on the subject (McNiel sp?), it is much more readable.
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Summary: An Elightening Read
Review: In spite of what you may like or dislike about the so-called political correctness of this book, I find this book to be an elightening and compelling read. I think Diamond's arguments are convincing to the point that I accept his thesis. Meanwhile the book is pretty entertaining and it helped me understand more in general about the topics of plant and animal domestication as well as linguistics.
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Summary: Essential Reading
Review: This book is an extremely penetrating and illuminating sketch of the last 13,000 years of human history, thus anyone who wishes to gain a greater understanding of the present should read it. I believe that this book has the power to change minds or at least make people rethink their prejudices and assumptions regarding humanity. I'd recommend it for this reason alone. Indeed, this may well be the most important book one ever reads.
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Summary: Deserves its Reputation
Review: Diamond illustrates over and over again the importance of a few key aspects of the early history of civilization. In the absence of what we would refer to as culture, or of great differences in cultures from place to place and time to time, the ability or inability to put at one's disposal the basic necessities of life go a long way toward shaping the futures of early societies. Geographical contingencies, then, have everything to do with early development. In spite of what many might wish, this is an almost entirely apolitical work, dealing primarily as it does with pre-modern history. This is a book whose lessons you will long remember.
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Summary: Nonsense
Review: OK Diamond has thought out his innovative theory and produced a rather serious book. But it is very clear to me that he completely fails in explaning "the fate of human societies". Many previous reviewers have already mentionned many important factors (culture, religion, etc.) he did not (or hardly) bother to consider, so I do not need to rehash this. I will however mention a very important factor that has not been so much mentionned in other reviews: the genetic, racial factor. For this I refer to Levin's book Why Race Matters (and alternatively to Duke's My Awakening. Duke is less scientific, but is book is cheaper and easier.) Another aspect of the book, and the most disturbing for me, is that he chides the West and praises the alleged superiority of the aboriginal people (which Darwin used to call a "savage race.") But I will simply expose the falsity of his beliefs on this issue by pointing at Diamond's own life and at the migration flows. If the aboriginal civilization is superior, why didn't Diamond stay with them, why did he move back to the West? Because the West is far more superior. How is it that no westerners wants to emigrate to underdevelopped countries, but that the contrary is true? I think it clear that Diamond is wrong, but if he was right I know a nice job for him: let him work for the anti-immigration administration, and convince all those who came from the third world to go back to their countries, and let him preach to the people in the third world that they are better off than we are, and should not try to emigrate. But I doubt he would have much success.
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Summary: Englightening, ambitious read
Review: In this Pulitzer Prize winning book, Jared Diamond tackles one of the most difficult questions imaginable: Why do different societies dominate others? Why did the Europeans conquer the new world, rather than the other way around? Why did Europeans colonize Africa? Traditional explanations have relied on European racial superiority, a notion both morally abhorrent and scientifically refuted. Diamond builds on the work of anthropology, sociology, agriculture, immunology, and many other disciplines to put forth a coherent set of explanations for the ascendancy of different peoples throughout our 13,000 year history as a civilized species. A fantastic, educational read.
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