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Summary: Excellent book, but ignores role of culture and religions!
Review: This a an excellent book and clarifies much of the reason why Europe and the West prevailed in history, rather than say Africa or N America. Basically Diamond argues eloquently that geography and luck of the draw food resources and animals explain much of the winners success in history. His is a well formed, well researched argument. However, I believe that he turns a blind eye to the major effects ( good and bad ) that different religions and cultures have had on the success of their people. His request for further study by Historians using more scientific means is welcomed . Perhaps someone's PHD thesis could use historical information to compare transplanted religions and cultures into dominant and non dominate societies and analyze the results. My guess is that cultural bias and religions had as much to do with history as did geography and food supply. All in all, a great book.. worthy of much thought, but as one reads it, do not forget to think.
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Summary: At long last: the reality of the previous 13,000 years
Review: Simply the best book of its type I have ever encountered. A must read for anyone who thinks they understand human history
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Summary: Not bad, but Landes' Wealth & Poverty of Nations is better
Review: Diamond answers the standard question: why is the West rich? His answer, in short, is geography. Well, maybe. He does admit that geography shapes culture, but culture also makes a huge difference in what people *do* with geography's endowments. For my money, which I spent, David Landes' "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations" is a better take on the same question. Landes focuses on culture; he admits that geography plays a role (he's not as monocausal as Diamond) but emphasizes cultural traits over geography because, well, they matter more. Best statistic: the GDP of the 30 million overseas chinese exceeds that of the entire People's Republic of China. Why? The overseas chinese -- who thrive everywhere -- have a culture of thrift and hard work. The PRC Chinese have a culture of sucking up to the authorites. That's changing now, of course, but the point holds.
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Summary: Location, Location, Location -- Not!
Review: Jared Diamond is a wordsmith -- that is the only reason I gave his latest revisionist effort any stars at all. Not to be trite, but the gushy liberal propaganda Diamond expounds on in Guns, Germs, and Steel is nothing more than the latest in a long line of assaults on "Euroasian" culture perpetrated by bleeding-heart academic types absurdly trying to apologize for some of humanity's greatest successes -- in this case civilization. What a load. According to Diamond, intelligence, the preponderant factor in most beings' success or failure, does not count for much where humans are concerned. Instead, our "progress" has hinged solely on where we built our campfires. Hard work had nothing to do with it. Who knew? By the way, Diamond's romantic notion (and secondary theme) that native New Guineans are "... on the average more intelligent, more alert, more expressive, and more interested in things and people around them than the average European! or American ..." is obvious foolishness and a plain silly statement to make. Whatever happened to common sense? Who hired Diamond at UCLA? This joker is teaching our children for goodness sake!!! How on earth did this junk ever win the Pulitzer Prize? Diamond is our generation's Margaret Mead. I mean that in a bad way, for those of you who are still being indoctrinated with Mead's discredited-but-politically-correct, feel-good claptrap. Besides the remarkably similar flaws in their work, Diamond also characterizes anyone who diagrees with him as "racist," much in the same vein Mead & Co. characterized her detractors. For a far better read on the development of our world, check out Thomas Cahill's now-classic How the Irish Saved Civilization, or his most recent work, The Gifts of the Jews. Either one of these books contains more insights on a single page than all of Diamond's writings put together.
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Summary: There's this Toynbee guy...
Review: With all the lucid and believable staements in the book, why did he have to repeat several times that New Guinea natives are smarter than the rest of the people on earth? Yes it stuck in my throat. He is writing a book on how all humanity is born the same and he throws that in. Since he spent the better part of his life in New guinea, studing them, earning his accolades through them, I see where his heart is, but fer crying out loud don't shoot yourself in the foot. Its not our fault you were born in the West...
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Summary: Natural experiments on environment versus genes
Review: A great and facinating book that goes a fair way to answering the key question in history, how certain populations became so dominant. Of course the "nature vs. nurture" argument has to appear in some reviews. I feel Diamond does a good job of controlling for the influence of biology in examples such as the Austronesian expansion in the Pacific. Given the virtually identical genetic stock and the clear correlation between geography and society in the Pacific it is hard to see how people can go on churning out the old arguments on genetic superiority. Even though there may be certain traits in human behavior favored by specific environments, the benefits of combining all human ideas and inventions surely outweighs any advantage of favoring one group.
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Summary: Outstanding Review of 10,000 Years of Human Development
Review: One of the best book I've read, in that it helped me better understand many of my own observations about human "civilization." Well worth reading by anybody interested in the broad issues confronting the world today, even if one doesn't agree with every word. (I find the reviews here to be very interesting, the reactions of individual readers obviously vary greatly. I think that's a testament to the weightiness of the material covered. Read it!
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Summary: Clear, thought-provoking and overly-zealous
Review: A wonderful view of the broad sweep of history. Especially valuable as "globalization" moves forward. Now that geography plays less of a role in societal affairs, how will people deal with change through their long-established cultural filters? That's not to say that geography is not still destiny on an individual level, but this is not discussed in the book. The book, by the way, IS repetitive, as other readers have pointed out. But, except in isolated instances, I believe this works to its advantage: important points are reiterated until you feel certain you understand what Diamond is trying to say.
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Summary: Excellent foundation for a new field of historical science
Review: This is not a flawless book. A number of other reviewers have already pointed out flaws in specific details, some evidence chains, and a few conclusions. Here and there, opinion pokes its way into the prose.That said, I give this book 5 stars and a hearty recommendation to anyone interested in the whys and hows of history. While many of the details in modern history are more complex than Diamond's methods can address, the great sweeping trends leading to our modern world are well described and documented. Diamonds methodology and integration set the footings in place for serious, detailed, and ongoing research into how and why societies evolved when and where they did. Some of his conclusions may be overturned by that continuing research, but there must always be a foundation to build upon. Finally, it is instructive to look at how other reviewers here have approached the book. It's challenging on many levels, and some of the reviewers respond uncomfortably to that challenge. Read the rest of the reviews and make up your own mind (and then, buy the book. It has lessons even in areas where it may be wrong).
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Summary: Fantastic. A rare and brilliant gem.
Review: In the era of books based on psuedo or shoddy science, such as the Bell Curve, etc. Along comes a book that explains how history happened, and why it happened in a rationalistic and deterministic fashion. Is argument is well-organized, and well researched. The power of his theory comes in his mass analysis, depending not on individuals but on the species as a whole. The amount of information in this book could easily be expanded into 3 or 4 volumes on several subjects (the section on disease vectors is particularly fascinating). The book shows the powerful results when a true scientist analyzes the big questions of history.
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