Rating: 
Summary: Interesting ideas, but not worth 400+ pages
Review: The author presents a simple and credible set of ideas. Unfortunately, far too much text is devoted to countless long-winded examples that don't add much insight or credibility to those ideas. Instead of reinforcing the author's arguments, this serves to obscure them in the endless verbiage, and bores the reader into a coma.
Rating: 
Summary: Location, Location, Location
Review: Diamond's bestseller may be destined for a spot on the shelf next to Stephen Hawking's works - bought by millions of readers, most of whom seem only to get through a chapter or two. That's a shame, because "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is both accessible and important, but its 420 pages may be too much for those preferring quickie books to a modest challenge. Diamond, a physiology professor at UCLA, writes about the rise of civilization, or more precisely, he asks why European civilization became so advanced that it was able to conquer other continents, rather than vice versa. The guns, germs, and steel of the title are the tools of conquest used the by the europeans, but they aren't the answer. The question goes back even further: assuming that humanity arose from common African ancestors several million years ago, what set of factors allowed certain european and asian societies to develop the advanced weapons, virulent germs, and modern technology they used to subdue the other continents, rather than the other way around. Diamond jumps off from the 1532 capture of the Inca emperor Atahuallpa by Pizarro and his tiny band of Spaniards, asking, "Why did Pizarro capture Atahuallpa instead of Atahuallpa capturing or killing Pizarro?... How did Pizarro come to be there to capture him, instead of Atahuallpa's coming to Spain to capture King Charles I?". The answer, as Diamond patiently and capably demonstrates, has nothing to do with racist notions of intelligence but comes down to the fact that prehistoric societies in the Fertile Crescent area of the middle east were blessed with a variety of plants and animals that could be domesticated and that eurasia is blessed with a long east-west axis. That's pretty much it. Sounds simple? Well, it is and it isn't. Cogently reviewing tools, agriculture, language, ecology, and a host of other scientific fields, Diamond shows how societies that produced food surpluses became large and sedentary and developed specialized classes of bureaucrats, priests, and craftspeople who created modern civilization and all the technologies and ideologies that supported exploration and conquest. The book is not a scientific thesis full of academic jargon, but is a clear historical outline for the educated layperson. It is designed to make the reader's job easy, with chapter summaries in the prologue and wrap-up paragraphs at the end of each chapter. One quibble: it could be shortened by one-third without sacrificing substance. Diamond's patient explications can occasionally be repetitive or overlong. Readers are constantly reminded of simple truths developed in earlier chapters, so that new ideas are slow in developing. However, the thesis itself is thought-provokingly simple and probably unique for many readers. Quite simply, it is a new and persuasive way of looking at the world. Civilization as a function of environment. Take the time to read the whole thing, it's well worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Diamond asks the questions I never thought to ask
Review: This was one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time. Diamond attempts to answer the question of why did Europe conquer Africa, the Americas, and some of Asia and not the other way around? Why did China become a strong and unified giant nation while Europe split up into many nations? How did Pizarro kill so many people with so few men? Guns, Germs, and Steel takes you through a journey of the history of man and is a must read for anyone that wants to attempt to understand the world we live in and how it got there.
Rating:
Summary: Fate and Destiny Read SB 1 or God
Review: I really enjoyed this one, as I am in the select group of thinkers similar. I strongly agree as science is in fact hard cold facts of life whether social or physical. We live in a fair world of the physical sciences but an unfair world of our social desires, which have been weighed and unfairly balanced, fate has been partially determined. I especially agree with the Euro influences spoken of by Jared. What has me happy with this book is that here is a person not afraid to break mainstream thought, tell it like it really is and be able to capture the mainstream reader. I must highly recommend another book (Which has this Scientific thinking but adventurous) that you should not be fooled by the title, Karl Mark Maddox, SB 1 or God
Rating: 
Summary: Good ideas, atrocious presentation.
Review: What Jared Diamond really needs this Christmas (or Hannukah, as the case may be) is a ghost writer. Jesus Christ Almighty is he dull--with the exception of the chapter on the Spanish defeat of the Incan Atahualpa. Properly rewritten, there's enough material here for a cover article in the Atlantic magazine. His rhetorical outline is straight out of Composition 101: first he tells ya what he's gonna tell ya, then he tells ya, then he tells ya what he's told you. If you found the previous sentence tedious and unoriginal, imagine it writ large over 440 pages. He follows this rhetorical pattern not just in every chapter, but in every subunit of every chapter. It's as if he feels obligated to repeat the material so often that readers will be incapable of misunderstanding or forgetting it.
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Summary: Too Politically Correct
Review: Jared Diamond explains the differences between human societies but under-emphasizes an important factor. Randomness. Randomness in genes and natural events. I find it extremely difficult to believe that as human groups spread out across the globe they all had exactly the same IQ, physical abilities, etc. It is more likely that they were different from the start. Diamond tries to paint a picture where these differences were nonexistent. I've been in enough school classes where we dividided into groups to do the same project. At the end of the semester the diversity of the end results was amazing even though the groups were supposed to be identical in IQ, ability, etc. It is highly likely that certain cultures ARE better than others. Their group gestalt was superior even in early times. Perhaps they gravitated to a particualry good leader. Perhaps they had a better notion of decision making, or curiosity, or whatever. Unfortunatley Diamond tries too hard not to offend with this probable truth.
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Summary: The tie that binds
Review: Diamond binds the story of mankind that we read in the fossil record to biological and ecological problems of today, and in between provides insight into how and why culture developed as it did. A book for everyone interested in the forces that shape our society.
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Summary: One of the best science books of the Century!
Review: Without any doubt I can say that 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' is one of the best science books of 20th century. Although it is not a history book in the narrow definition of the term History, 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' answers questions about the origins of human civilizations, which no historian has ever been able to answer.
What makes this book unique is the fact that Mr. Diamond does not even bother to recount the histories of early human civilizations. Instead he focuses on the environment where those civilizations developed.
In my opinion, the most remarkable thing about this book is that it demolishes the racist theories of history. It offers convincing explanation about why some societies happened to be more advanced than others.
Guns, Germs, and Steel is a must for every one who is interested in History. It delivers a comprehensive overview of the evolution of human civilization, which no other book has been able to offer yet. Fascinating work!!
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Summary: World history from 50,000 feet up
Review: Diamond probably should have named this book "Domesticatable Plants and Animals, Germs, and Migrations". Even so, it is one of the best histories of world I have ever read. He builds a convincing case for geographical determinism as the source of cultural and technological differences between the peoples of the world. Diamond describes the widely different inheritances of edible plants and domesticatable animals in geographic regions. The inevitable force of human ingenuity led to a package of food crops, farm animals, and epidemic diseases posessed by the inhabitants of these areas. This inheritance enabled inundation and replacement of peoples who were less fortunate in what the earth offered them. If you have ever wondered why Europeans conquered the world in the 1800's, why China is relatively homogenous, why indigenous Australians were technologically backwards, why the Americas' indigenous people were virtually exterminated, and why Africans were not given the same treatment, this book is for you. A great rebuttal to racialist theories of cultural variation.
Rating:
Summary: We are
Review: Jared Diamond's sheer knowledge was what impressed me most in Guns, Germs and Steel. The book was almost an enlightening experience for me, and gave me an entirely new view on humanity and how we've come to be who and where we are. I can still picture in my mind images of people moving around the world and watch technologies develop and spread across continents in certain directions, but not in others. I would recommend it to people interested in learning more about the movement's of people throughout time, and how we've come to be who we are.
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