Rating: 
Summary: Must read for anyone
Review: Guns, Germs and Steel is one of the most enlightening books I have ever read . It talks about a major factor on the development of human societies, which is the environment. Alas this important factor has been neglected by historians and archaeologists in their findings of how human societies have developed during the ages.
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Summary: Facts and Fits
Review: If you have been a Joseph Campbell enthusiast, this is your kind of book. It is a better read than the majority of Campbell's texts, which reference scientific details but are primarily more abstractly drawn. The scientific information in this generous volume is explained within context that is specific and sequenced such that the theoretical positions are also convincing and easily retained. Jared Diamond is a life and earth science Everyman. His credentials, (Professor of Physiology at Berkley's Medical School), world-reknowned bird expert, field researcher for 30 years in Tasmania, and popular author, have been sufficiently lauded in reviews so I don't need to repeat them here. I have seen this book cited on several Listmania favorites and I agree that it is a worthwhile and unique work. In addition to being remarkably interesting and filled with astonishing bits of information- (for those of us lay readers at least) it is clearly a work of love. The forces that have impacted on the development of civilizations, we learn, are functions of geographic variables, not human ones. By carefully evaluating such variables as the availability of hoofed animals that could be trained, (the zebra, infamously, never being one,) as the pre-existing phenomenon for the 'inspired' concept of the wheel- from which major societal advancements have been generated. Why, in a highly structured South American civilzation, had there been no similar 'invention?' Dr. Diamond draws us to the lack of pack animals suitable for carrying loads or providing transportation. The llama's are hoofed beasts but their very narrow ankles and small hoofs make their service to humans nothing like the Arabian horses that spread through Spain and other parts of Europe. It is by this process of establishing the geographical resources related to planting, animal domestication, travel etc. that one understands why in some areas the people are still primitive and others at a level of such high technical advancement. Diamond has joined many aspects of science to argue against racial determinist theories that are still very much the means by which people explain the disparate conditions of the world. I found the scientific information extremely interesting and the larger concept both persuasive and valuable. Some reviewers, have argued that these facts are already well known and objected then, to the very style I praised above. However I am fairly well-read but- Who knew that infectious diseases like smallpox etc, (and, AIDS, I might add,) were specific to animals and transmitted to man only after the practice of animal husbandry? I would have never guessed that I can tell you! And as Europeans developed resistance to these plagues and outbreaks, the indigenous populations of the newly discovered lands had not. The horrific result was that entire populations were decimated. ... But we must not overlook the provocative challenge to Eurocentric explanations that continue to prevail. Diamond treds onto the sacred ground of racial determinism that despite its denial and politically incorrect condition remains the only answer for many otherwise silent believers. ...If you read this book, you may learn something about yourself as you confront centuries of racial explanations for western scientific method, aka wealth. And if there were not that tease, I'd advise you to read it anyway if you are, as I admitedly am, an interested observer with access to this most compelling point of view.
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Summary: A clever but problematic investigation of human prehistory
Review: The author presents a very compelling argument about just how humanity progressed on the various continents from 13,000 to 500 years ago. Some 60% of the book's material is of this compelling nature, and even the most skeptical readers will find themselves thinking, "Of course, that -has- to be true, even if it is difficult to prove." I find no difficulty with his primary hypothesis, that initial resources promoted plant and animal domestication, especially in the Fertile Crescent of Eurasia, and the lack of such resources on other continents (and the various South Pacific islands) is the primary reason that development elsewhere was retarded or even halted.I have some difficulty with his secondary hypothesis, that the lack of development elsewhere had nothing to do with racial characteristics or capabilities. I do not disagree with his secondary hypothesis, but I think it very much distracts his argument for the primary one. It is this hypothesis that accounts for the author's dwelling on themes characterized by some as being "politically correct" or even "Marxist." The author's preoccupation with these themes comprises about 10% of the book, and is where the author's arguments become the sloppiest. Some examples: 1) (pp. 22-23) He argues that New Guineans seem to him smarter than typical Westerners, and offers various hypothetical explanations as to why. While his goal is, I think, to demonstrate the absurdity of the argument, he does not explicitly argue that way. Significantly, he ignores the most likely reason for his perception, a selection effect: of course, the New Guineans seem smarter as a whole, because he won't be spending his time talking with those who are not as bright. Also, he has a much stronger cultural context by which to judge the ignorance of Westerners than New Guineans. 2) (pp. 64, 67, 252, 317) Europeans "discover" (always in quotes) the Americas, Hawaii, or New Guinea, but (p. 209) typhus microbes discovered (not in quotes) other means of infection. This is ubiquitous PC, but annoying nonetheless. I'm willing to concede that Columbus in 1492 was not "the" discovery of the Americas, but not that it was not really a discovery. Quotes should indicate using a word in an unconventional manner, or to actually quote someone's opinion, otherwise they are just snide. The microbes "discovery" should be in quotes, because it is not intelligent, while Columbus actually did discover something, even if he was not the first. 3) (p. 199) The author writes: "The skin lesions caused by smallpox similarly spread microbes by direct or indirect body contact (occasionally very indirect, as when U.S. whites bent on wiping out 'belligerent' Native Americans sent them gifts of blankets previously used by smallpox patients)." This parenthetical comment is nonfactual, and is a kind of historical urban legend. A search engine query on "smallpox blankets indians" provides plenty of background. The grain of truth is that during the French and Indian war, British General Jeffry Amherst wrote about doing something like that, and it is unclear the extent to which it was done. There are no other documented instances. This truth differs from the author's account on several points: there was no "U.S." yet; it was not "whites" in general; and as for "bent on wiping out" and "'belligerent'" there was a war going on. Official U.S. policy of the mid-19th century was to vaccinate Native Americans against smallpox. The problem of ubiquitous PC is that these kinds of comments can enter into scholarly work without being questioned. 4) (p. 287) The author writes: "Large societies can function economically only if they have a redistributive economy in addition to a reciprocal economy. Goods in excess of an individual's needs must be transferred from the individual to a centralized authority, which then redistributes the goods to individuals with deficits." This is one spot where the book appears to be Marxist. The author mentions elsewhere that a lot of the redistribution was from the people to the government, such as using slaves to build pyramids, yet here mentions only the ideal of helping those less well-off. Nor does he mention the role of government in providing a trustworthy medium of exchange, called "money," that is the primary reason that a large society can function economically. Don't look to this book for a coherent economic analysis of primitive societies. Aside from the PC issues, the book has other milder problems. After hitting on several good points about how something likely came to be, he adds even more that are of questionable value and scholarship. For example (p. 129), among his arguments on why the acorn did not become a source of food is that acorns and squirrels evolved around each other, and with the squirrels still around, humans essentially had no chance to domesticate the acorn. This is a marvelous explanation, but it completely fails as a hypothesis, since it is essentially not provable. This detracts from the material because such explanations are given equal weight with others that are far more convincing. The author habitually makes 'ad hoc', and 'post hoc ergo propter hoc' arguments. In part, this is due to the material. As he mentions in the epilogue, this isn't a science like physics where one can perform experiments, but we only have the evidence of the past. We take the present as the starting point and ask how we got here, and if we are not careful with the facts, we end up with explanations that aren't explanations, but rather excuses as to why another explanation doesn't work in this particular case. In spite of these difficulties, this is a monumental work, and very much worth reading. I would advise readers to be skeptical of much of the author's reasoning, but the author's primary thesis is boldly presented, and for that core thesis my main criticisms are only nitpicks.
Rating:
Summary: The most interesting book I have read in awhile
Review: I can't recall the last time my mind was this stimulated reading about human history. Jared Diamond's book, "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is a very thought provoking book. I came across it by chance at the L.A. Natural Musuem and glad that I did, it widened my perspective and respect for people of different cultures.
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Summary: Scholarship in a class by itself
Review: Guns Germs and Steel is scholarship in a class by itself. It is not only brilliant scholarship (and it is that -- even the speculation carries such a heavy weight of persuasion as to ring like authority); it is also an authoritative treatment of something of fundamental importance to understanding humankind. But what is the great accomplishment of this ambitious book? Merely to explain, from *first principles*, why it is that Europeans have come to dominate the rest of the world militarily and culturally. And when I say first principles, I mean first principles: the elements of his argument are the geophysical structure of our planet's continents, the distribution of flora and fauna across them, and the initial distribution of the first anatomically modern humans. Briefly, Diamond shows that the roughly east-west orientation of the temperate latitudes of the Eurasian continent (as opposed to the roughly north-south orientation of the temperate zones of all other continents), combined with the wide variety of domesticable animals and crop-plants to be found there when humans first arrived (far exceeding the variety to be found anywhere else in the world) gave Eurasians a massive temporal "headstart" over humans elsewhere in terms of developing agriculture and in transporting innovations in agriculture to other contiguous areas with similar climactic conditions. This led to the development of centers of dense population in Eurasia before such centers developed elsewhere -- in particular, the development of centers of dense population where humans lived in close association with non-human animals. This led not only to rapid technological advancement but also to resistance to a wide variety of diseases. This combination made Eurasians unbeatable. Given the layout of the continents and the distribution of flora and fauna useful to humans across them, assuming humans wherever found were "equal" in intelligence, creativity, industriousness and strength, one would predict a priori that the Eurasians would become dominant. Why European dominance over Asians? Here, Diamond shifts mildly into the speculative. He notes that Europe is more broken up by an indented coastline and by mountains than is Asia, and concludes that Europe's geography lent itself to many competing autonomous cultures, whereas Asia's lent itself to a single, broad, monolithic culture. (Surely historical hindsight is polluting his argument with a little a posteriori reasoning here, but let us not quibble, the idea isn't ridiculous.) Technological innovation is more likely to take place, to flourish, and to spread, where there is local competition than where there isn't. Not a perfect explanation, but surely a large component of a complete explanation all the same. It is possible to point to counter-evidence on a smaller scale, but at the broad level at which Diamond's argument is operative, it is unassailable. Like most modern revolutionary scholarship, Diamond's methodology is cross-disciplinary in nature; his own specialty is ornithology -- specifically, of all things, avian physiology. This is not, however, as strange as it sounds, because in part it was his far-flung travels doing ornithology field-work that led him to put all of the pieces of his argument together. In any event, Diamond draws upon history, archaeology, biology, genetics, and ethnology to produce his grand thesis to explain thirteen millennia of the human experience. In sum, I cannot recommend this book enough; it is destined to shape our collective understanding of human history at a profound level.
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Summary: Sets the Stage, Yet Works No Drama
Review: Diamond is a competent and articulate anthropologist who endeavors, in "Guns, Germs, and Steel," to resolve one of those chestnut arguments about human development: what made winners and what made losers? He explains that there were only a limited number of places whose physical conditions fostered the development of a pastoral and agricultural economy - a growth spurt which, in turn, generated organized economies, capital surpluses and further technological development. He goes further to explain why those civilizations tended to generate immunities to disease (by building immunity to the diseases spread by the livestock). This is a great work of proto-history, but I have some objection to it being called a "history book," in the sense that term is commonly used. The GGS thesis explains why certain pre-conditions happen, but it doesn't delve into the human drama which follows. For instance, it's a great source for understanding why Pizzaro's conquistadors had a wildly disproportionate advantage over the Aztecs, but it doesn't tell us the human story of why Pizzaro conquered or the cultural devastation his conquest wrought. In other words, GGS tells us how the stage was built but it doesn't deal with the drama played out upon it. Still, this is one of the best works of popular science in the last decade.
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Summary: Rehashed Marxism
Review: It doesn't say much for the Pulitzer that this mendacious piece of garbage won an award.Diamond denies that the ideas of freedom of the individual,the insistence on technological,philosophical inquiry and scientific method that the Western world has advocated and practiced these last 2,000 years;instead he reaches back 13,000 years to find an excuse as to why the 3rd world today is in such miserable shape.Here's a clue:most of what we call the 3rd world has no tradition of individual freedom or scientific inquiry;most 3rd world countries have yet to grasp the concept of plumbing-maybe that has a little something to do with rampant disease and unsanitary conditions?Diamond ultimately takes the road of the Left in discrediting the achievements of the Western world out of some misplaced guilt over the 3rd world's BACKWARDNESS.Yes,the 3rd world is backward,that is why it is such a sorry state.To try and discredit the vast accomplishments that has sought to bring mankind out of the caves in order to appease the guilt over the 3rd world being so bad off is pure liberal guilt 101.Diamond conveniently overlooks the fact that there have been other civilizations that had fertile and abundant livestock and resources,yet did not come out their backwardness until they had contact with European settlers and missionaries.In no way do I believe that European civilization is necessarily the best possible civilization that mankind can achieve,but the most free,comfortable,luxury-stuffed well-off societies that exist today are not the result of a jungle culture of New Guinea but an outgrowth of the Western ideas inherent in Christianity,science,medicine,democratic goverments and belief in the individual as oppesed to the Authority of the State or King or Marxist-minded individuals like Diamond who would bring us to the noble savage kingdom on Earth like our pals the nazi's and communists tried to do in the not so distant past.This book is absolute sewage and the Pulitzer is a joke.
Rating: 
Summary: not outstanding
Review: Diamond's contributions to the understanding of the forces of geology and food production are important, but he seems to completely miss the point regarding other patterns which shape the direction of history. "Nonzero : The Logic of Human Destiny" by Robert Wright is a much more enjoyable and enlightening read.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent & thought provoking, but with limitations
Review: Jared Diamond does an excellent job of setting out some reasons behind how different areas developed. For instance why it was people from Eurasia that came to dominate the Americas, and not vice versa. [Essentially more favourable geography and availability of domesticatible plants and animals - and the associated diseases from those domestic animals]. I found this book thought provoking and it had many elements which were new for me. In addition, it is written in an engaging manner, which I enjoyed. It does not consider the impact of societal structure or culture, and cannot therefore explain why it was Western Europe rather than other Eurasian centres such as the Middle East, India or China that came to dominate the world. I would recommend other books (especially Paul Kennedy's Rise and Fall of the Great Powers) for post-1500 developments. Nevertheless I would rate this as one of my top books and would recommend it to anyone with a general interest in history.
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Summary: Fascinating, Thorough, and Cogent
Review: Diamond takes the reader on a sweeping journey through the history and anthropology of human civilization and provides a compelling account of how the broad outlines of our modern world were drawn by distant accidents of biology and geography. If one were to read only one history book out of school, this would be a worthy candidate.
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