Rating: 
Summary: Not What I expected
Review: I bought this book in an airport newsstand prior to an 11 hour flight. As a firearms designer and history major, I thought it would touch on the basis for my thesis that "Development of Firearms Launched the Industrial Revolution."; boy was I ever wrong.At points it's fairly compelling, yet midway through the PC pablum it's just a case of having [$$] invested and half the pages gone and 5 more hours to kill on the flight! His arguments become ridiculous. He cites that African animals were incapable of being domesticated, ignoring the fact that water buffalos and rhinos can tame down easier than a Jersey Cow!
He writes off Elk, Wapiti, and Caribou being unable to be domesticated by "Native Americans" yet their genetic equivalents (Reindeer) have been domesticated by the Finns and Icelanders for centuries! Climate and predators are equal in all instances, the only difference is the people! His obsession with the tribesmen of New Guinea contained some interesting points and that is where the book was possibly worth the price and why I gave it 2 stars. The only other bit of insight might be the dim bulbs that loved it are either so brainwashed by the left or just believe everything they read.
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Summary: I wish more Christians in America would read this book.
Review: Previous reviewers have explored the author's thesis that geography has shaped history through its effects upon evolution of societies and biota. My review will focus on the author's comments regarding religion, and particularly Christianity. I found this book enlightening and humbling because despite my best efforts, I can't entirely avoid a taint of ethnocentrism in my worldview. I've been well aware of the crimes through which America gained its wealth and power, but at the same time, I've been proud of our many noble accomplishments. I've been distressed at the incongruity between Christianity's positive effects within our society, and its simultaneous role in encouraging our country to sin against less-powerful peoples for our own benefit. Slavery, the Mexican Wars, and the Indian genocides are only a few examples. For this reason, the author's comments on religion are useful. He notes that as larger, better-organized states arose to exploit resources, rulers used religion to strengthen ethnic identity and justify aggressive wars. This was the way of the world for millennia: stronger states robbed and enslaved their weaker neighbors without apology, and religion was usually secular power's cheerleader. Because of this book, I see now that Christianity's ambivalent role in American is nothing new in the world of religion. What's outrageous about this role is that Christ came to change all that. As Paul said, in Christ there is neither slave nor free, Jew or gentile. We're supposed to be Christians first, and citizens of our respective polities second. I believe that Christianity started to go off this track when Constantine made it Rome's state religion. Although we owe secular authority considerable obedience, that obedience does not include giving preference to our own polities' interests over others'. Clearly, in those areas where our Christian faith touches upon relationships with other countries, we've lapsed into religion's traditional role of being secular power's lapdog rather than its watchdog.
Rating: 
Summary: A complex view of equality
Review: This proved an exciting intellectual journey for a traveller, such as myself, not well versed in anthropology. Professor Diamond offered me a glimpse of a whole landscape of thought which would have remained otherwise hidden from view. His original ideas are made all the more vivid thanks to the clarity of his writing and his discerning choice of examples. He looks at his key concerns from a number of angles, so what might strike some as being repetitious will be seen by those fascinated by his ideas as a welcome thoroughness of approach, like turning a multi-faceted gem to the light.
*
Perhaps it is best to see his argument as starting from the postulate - if you take human groups of sufficiently large number, then the average intelligence (however you might like to define this) will be approximately equal; given this rough equality of inner potential between groups of humans, how does one explain the diverse fates and developments of human societies throughout the breadth of geography and time? The structure of his explanation is well summarised in reviews elsewhere. The fact that his explanation is cogent and convincing, at least shows that it is not necessary to posit innate racial superiority in order to account for human history's vicissitudes.
*
Holding the above in mind, with its attendant thought that the book is, in a sense, addressed to an implicit enemy (those who wish to encourage views of racial superiority), helps to understand the structure of the book. It also helps to remember the scale and ambition of the argument, otherwise some deficiencies in certain details might seem more damaging than they really are.
*
Professor Diamond clearly has a remarkable mind and it seems a privilege to be able to share some of this thoughts.
Rating:
Summary: A grand unifying theory of human history
Review: I once saw Jared Diamond referred to as the current Jedi Master of human history, and from this important and influential book it's easy to see why. In "Guns, Germs, and Steel," Diamond lays out a grand unifying theory of human history that is as powerfully explanatory as evolutionary theory is for the diversity of species. In doing so, he provides a model for a much deeper understanding of all human history. The title is a reference to the proximate (immediate) factors--of which guns, germs and steel are just a few--that have resulted in the triumph of certain societies over others. It's a catchy title, but it doesn't reflect the true thrust of the book, which is demonstrating how ultimate factors like the availability of domesticable plants and animals and the geographic ease of technology and foods diffusion led to more dense and complex societies and eventually to those factors that helped some societies engulf others through conquest or other means. In other words, it's ultimately all about the real estate. To argue his thesis, Diamond draws on a wealth of history, genetics, linguistics, archeology, and other disciplines to create an unprecedented synthesis. Maybe you're familiar with much of the material presented here, but when put together so coherently in the service of his theory, it is incredibly illuminating. Most readers won't have even thought of the important questions about our world that the author answers so convincingly. The book isn't perfect. Diamond likes to drive home his points through repetition, which aids in retention but can get tiring. The organization could have been a little better, and a considerable amount of material not directly related to his thesis could have been trimmed off. But this book gets my highest rating because it successfully explains the broadest trends, patterns and processes of human history, and provides a foundation essential for understanding why things are as they are today. It deserves all the critical and popular acclaim it's received.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting...but
Review: Jared Diamond presents an interesting argument in explaining the world's iniquities...but after a few days you forget it.
Not a "paradigm shifting" book.
Rating:
Summary: in Awe of the profound implications -- its so simply obvious
Review: A fantastic read for me -- this is a very profound body of work. While at times, I felt I was questioning the scientific "proof" behind the positions, my natural instincts kept telling me that -- even if the proof was not beyond doubt -- the probability was very high that the logic and fact connected. This made a direct impact on my correlation between winning and losing strategies at many levels -- including in the world economic and business conditions today.
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Summary: Tagline: 0% science 100% PC
Review: This book is a 100% reverse racism, where indigenous people are smarter, more intelligent than white people are, although - I guess - white people were indigenous 1000 years ago for Greeks or Romans. The concept of the book is one sentence: The development of civilization is based 100 % on geographical location. (And because Eurasia has the best location thus its people are the most developed.) Believe it or not, we learn at the end of the book why Europe is more developed than China is within Eurasia itself in just 2 to 3 paragraphs. You will be amazed to read it is because of Europe's coastline.
Do not buy or read this book it has nothing to do with science, it is a cheap mainstream reverse Mein Kampf...
Rating:
Summary: Dreadful
Review: Let me start by saying I have studied anthropology, forensics, anatomy and entomology. When I picked this book off the shelf I said "Now, this is the book for me!" From the first page, I found it to be the most boring, repetivive and predictable read I have ever experienced. I had more fun reading undergrad papers about moth pheromones. As some other reviewers mentioned, the author seems to put "stone-age" cultures on a pedestal as he tries to make Westerners feel bad for existing. Not really what I was hoping to get from this read. I actually fell asleep numerous times, trying to trudge through this. Hey, if you want bo believe the 5 start reviews, knock yourself out. I would sell the book, used but it's currently acting as a kickstand pad for my motorcycle...
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Summary: It's not just the land...
Review: Where I'd have to disagree with Mr. Meiner above is that Diamond isn't actually referring so much to the suitability of an area for agriculture; what's he's referring to is the suitability of crops and animals for domestication to agriculture, a matter of genetic diversity, really. Instead of approaching anthropology as an anthropologist, he approaches it as an evolutionary behaviorist. What's around you? How would it influence what actions are available to you? Diamond attempts in this book to draw a correlation between the plants available to natural population of humans and the likelihood of that population developing an agricultural civilization. Observing the plant life either natively available to a region or available by east-west transfer (as those plants would be mostly likely to succeed in the transplanted area), Diamond assessed the energy profit in calories of farming those plants versus hunting and gathering and then tried to link that to which strategy succeeded in that area. He also assays the animals that were available for domestication and tries to assay them not only as food but as trainable tools. By assessing the inherent 'domesticability' of the animals around a culture, he again tries to relate that to their likelihood of developing some sort of ranching or animal husbandry versus relying on wild animals as prey. Unlike most Homo sapiens, biologists aren't so used to separating humans categorically from the rest of the residents of the earth and are used to thinking of organismal behavior in terms of caloric profit - what maximizes my available energy and nutrients? How do I go about it? So, while this might seem like an off-the-wall nutjob approach to a problem to a historian, say, to a biologist it reads like a tried-and-true method. The only assumption he makes that I would maybe question is the notion that all higher civilization then ensues from the development of an agricultural society. Being a scientist from an industrial society myself, I am inclined to agree that technology is a good rough indicator of the "height" of a civilization. My friend the poet or the philosopher might be less inclined to agree. That's a question of criteria, though, not a critique of the whole approach. As far as his standard goes, I think he makes a pretty good case. He draws on several direct examples and cases as well, largely from the southern Pacific and Australian regions, to illustrate his point. Is it perfect? No. But it's hard to be perfect when you're the only one doing something. I think that even if you don't think you're going to agree with this book, it's worth reading, if only because of its freshness.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing insight!
Review: This book is the most captivating book on science and discovery that I have ever read. For those willing to approach it with an open mind, it can change the way you see race, history, and destiny. I can't recommend this more highly. The story begins with the author being asked a simple question and spirals into a thought-provoking and ground-breaking view of world history. Why do some peoples and nations have all the wealth? All the food? Why have other societies been shackled with poverty? Why have some societies seemed to have been given the short end of the stick by fate? Could it be race? Or is it something a bit simpler, something most of us would fail to ever consider? It is wonderful to read a book and feel your world view changing in the process.
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