Rating: 
Summary: Save your money and check it out from the library
Review: Jared Diamond certainly had a wonderful idea for a book, something I have wondered about: Why did the West come to dominate the world? The answers are in Mr. Diamond's book, which is well written and organized but sometimes tedious.Mr. Diamond tends to mention and make reference to his speciality -- New Guinea -- at every opportunity. He must think the average reader needs main points reitereated over and over again, which is nice in a textbook but annoying otherwise. Mr. Diamond's book just needs some pruning: unnecessary detail sometimes made the book tedious. Worth the cost of the book: Ultimlately, no. Worth checking out from the library: Definitely.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting in the beginning, boring at the end
Review: This would be a better book, if it weren't long and repetitious. For example, Part 4, which is a fourth of the book, repeats everything that has already been said in the previous parts. And what is the point of having all those photographs of people?
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money.
Review: Mr. Diamond does not tell us anything new. Throughout the book he keeps repeating himself over and over again. I read it, because I bought it.
Rating: 
Summary: An explanation of our world
Review: This is a compelling text for any who are interested in how our world has developed into the current state of existence. The logical explanation of the spread of man will aid anyone to better understand the world today. The premise is why do some cultures have computers, airplanes and modern medicine and yet others have pointed sticks and shells. The answer is clearly explained. A must read for all teachers of history and all that seek to underststand the relationship of cultures today.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't be Intimidated!
Review: When I first began to read this book, I was so intimidated by the advanced wording and content I almost gave it up. I didn't, though, and ended up really enjoying it. Why are societies today the way they are--some very advanced, others not much different from where they were millennia ago? Why were these advanced civilizations able to conquer more disadvantaged ones? What causes some countries to be disadvantaged in the first place? This book will answer these questions and more. So keep reading!! It might be hard going in the first few chapters, as I said, but it's really worth the effort to read.
Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: A Cornell student who had to read Guns, Germs, and Steel
Review: I'm a Cornell University freshman and i had to read this book. Guns, Germs, and Steel really ruined my summer. It's very long, repetitive, and not incredibly interesting. I also had to listen to a panel discussion about it and participate in a small group discussion. Every other student I've talked to agrees with my opinion, but hey, you might enjoy it if you like learning about the fates of human societies.
Rating: 
Summary: Intruiging- but unconvincing.
Review: Diamond's thesis is that it was geographical determinsm that was responsible for the dominance of the West, and that cultural factors- individualism, capitalism and so forth- were only of short term importance. He does have interesting answers for every exception to his rule, and indeed, he builds a compelling story to explain every culture and its success or failure. But none of these stories are universals, and none is applicable outside the region in question. Each of Diamond's stories amounts to what we might call a "Just So" story, after Kipling's tales by the same name. Building backwards from the outcome, Diamond can justify the special cases in each instance, but his universals all fail. For instance, China didn't attain the power of the west because it unified too soon, and this happend becasue it lacked the peninsulas and mountain ranges that isolated communities in Europe, allowing for greater development of different experiments in societal structure. This "Island Geography" approach is attractive and it echos a common thread in biodiversity, but it certainly doesn't explain the dominance of North America today- or the difference between North and South America. One problem with Diamond's thesis is that he's inconsistent. Sometimes it's the shortage of natural resources that triggers advancement of technology, and sometimes that same shortage impairs it. Having a lot of natural resources is similarly invoked to explain success and failure. A more serious problem is that Diamond has taken one brief snapshot in time- the world since the 19th Century- and has taken that as the absolute measure of the success or failure of a society and a geography. But a few centuries ago it was the world oif the East that was predominant, and indeed the Arabic world came very close to completely conquering Europe. Had Diamond written his book then, he would have needed to justify his thesis with arguments opposite from those he presents. And perhaps in another few centuries things will have reversed once more. Given all that, I find his argument singularly unconvincing
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Summary: The history of the world in 500 pages or less---
Review: Guns, Germs, and Steel has an ambitious goal-to explain why the world is the way it is (and, importantly, why it isn't remarkably different), in less than 500 pages. Thirteen thousand years of human history, written by a biologist/molecular physiologist rather than a historian. It's an amazingly dense piece of work; it's intelligent and interesting to read yet not so easy to "get into." I love these types of books-yet this one took me over a month to finish. Jared Diamond seeks to explain why Eurasians conquered most of the world-why the winners won instead of the other way around. His thesis is spelled out pretty completely in the title: the winners won not because of genetics as much as opportunity: they won because they had seeds (agriculture), resistance to germs, guns, and steel. Each of these intercepted with the others-for example, immunity to germs, such as smallpox, was obtained by working with domestic and farm animals; animals that weren't around the inhabitants of the New World. Diamond also tackles race head-on (yes, in a politically correct sort of way). He points out that genetics definitely helps confer an advantage to some groups (West African's resistance to malaria, for example), and that these advantages 'overuled' the military advantage of the Europeans in some cases. Aside from these examples, Diamond is leery to talk about neuro-biodiversity. I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, claiming any race holds genetic *superiority* over another, but the *differences* in ethnic diversity are important to consider. Biologists, in particular, should be able to do this without fear of being labeled a racist, despite the abominable history of eugenics. In the end, we have to remember that Diamond is not a historian. What he offers us here is a remarkable look at where the human race has been, and a plausible theory as to our routes through history. He did miss the boat on the FATES of society though--the future has yet to be written. Although the book was difficult to wade through, it was worth reading, and deserving of its Pulitzer Prize.
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Summary: Great book, despite what other reviewers say...
Review: I enjoyed this book completely. It's scope is magnificent and opened my eyes to one possible answer to the Western Europe Rules question -- the availability of domesticable food sources. I liked how the author addressed the myriad aspects contained: language, food production, invention, etc. Some other reviews on this site have detracted from what this book is about -- a hypothesis that is supported by the data at hand. Most of the detractors points have low merit (and I would think these same reveiwers have spent little time trying to forage for food in the wilderness considering one persons point that "ideas" have more meaning). One point that a reviewer made that I will agree with, is that luck plays a large part in how things turn out. Still, the book could be repetitive, and I don't think it is the final answer to the question set forward... only a very well thought out answer.
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Summary: masterpiece on colonization
Review: This book is a masterpiece on how superiority in knowledge ends up in triumph and ignorance in virtual extinction. In the wake of regional and inter-continental migration that are brought to life in this book, the gene and "memes" pools were altered beyond recognition. Knowledge of history and literary finesse made the book a beauty in its own class. Whoever claims a leadership position in societies should seek to draw lessons from the great waves of migration that Jared Diamond put together as coherence in this book. Those who care about diversity may raise the question on what is likely to come centuries after this short episode in human evolution.
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