Rating: 
Summary: Must Read
Review: An elegantly concieved and well executed exploration of the effects of geography and prehistory on the state of modern societies. The author makes the effort to trace the causes for why different societies evolved the way they did as far back as one can go. Most histories give the what, or only the proximal why. This very ambitious book attempts to give the ultimate why.True, there are lots of expositions of the data behind the theories. Some reviewers think it is fluff or just burdensome to read but these expositions are necessary to make the point convincingly. The people whose racist notions he is rebutting require that his points be made very convincingly and thoroughly. Sadly, it's still not enough to undo the wrong-headed racist views that some hold. Although it is hardly the main point of the book, the book is a thorough rebuttal of racism. The reviewer who thought that this book represents racism against whites has missed the point entirely. The author's point, in this case, is that modern culture (TV in particular) provides activities for children that can inhibit intellectual and social growth. You may accept or reject this thesis, but don't think for a minute that it is racist.
Rating: 
Summary: Garbage of the worst kind!
Review: ...The author claims that the savages of New Guinea are mentally superior to those of Western Europe.Need I say more about this book for absolute sheer nonsense. This is a racist book of the worst kind but its racism is against the white people.The agenda is to claim that the blacks and their derivatives are superior! WHITES ARE INFERIOR! ...This is not research but propaganda! Respectfully submitted,Pierre Rinfret
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Summary: Phenomenal!
Review: Guns, Germs, and Steel is a most informative, engaging book! Jared Diamond takes the reader on a whirlwind tour through the past 13,000 years of world history, masterfully combining such diverse disciplines as anthropology, archaeology, epidemiology, infectious disease, and plant biology. Figures and charts throughout the book are immensely useful, and you will find yourself referring back to them often. Dr. Diamond presents a solid theory of how native plant and animal resources, not native intelligence, translated into the ability of certain civilizations to gain social, economic, and political advantage over others. Your understanding of the world will change after reading this book.
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Summary: Inverted racism (2nd part)
Review: Jared Diamond has made friend with a Papoo named Yali. He has found him intelligent and well educated - which is not surprising. He concludes that Papoos "are on the average,more intelligent, more expressive and more interested in things than the average European or American". Of course, that is not racism. A crucial proof is given : Papoos are more able than Whites to find their way in the jungle. If they have not yet made a space shuttle, nor conquered China, the fault is in their bad environment. From our modest point of view, we say that, by chance, all peoples on the Earth are not as passive or devoid of imagination as Papoos. If Diamond had spent a few days visiting the French countryside, he would have seen that an environment has to be worked upon, it has to be dressed, to be reclaimed, to be irrigated ....
Rating:
Summary: Inverted racism (1st part)
Review: Jared Diamond has spent 33 yrs studying the fauna of New Guinea. That leaves little time to observe the rest ofthe world. He thinks that the appearance of high civilizations is explained by favourable environments, especially those propitious for the breeding of draught-animals. According to him, people of Black Africa have not been lucky : as draught animals, they have only inherited of the African buffalo. And the African buffalo is reportedly known for its bad temper. Mr Diamond does not ask himself if the phlegmatic humour of our bulls and cows (do not be too trustful) does not result from an appropriated selection, getting rid of agressive individuals.
Rating: 
Summary: Misshelved
Review: This is a book of speculation, not science.
Rating: 
Summary: Elegant thesis to questions of human development
Review: "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is one of those books that makes sense, expresses an idea that is so simple and clear, that it is very convincing. Is it correct? Who knows? It's a theory, and an elegant one. Basically, the book boils down into that old anxiom about the monkeys at typewriters, that if you get enough of them together for enough time, one of them will type the complete works of Shakespeare. You'll hear people claiming the book is "political" or "flawed." And it is, to some extent. But Diamond effectively backs up his major points with convincing data, enough to force us to consider his points. However, some critics go so far as to claim that Diamond doesn't consider culture or politics as factors in technological advancement. This is patently untrue. Diamond stresses the cultural and political factors in population advancement. Those populations with more resources, larger numbers, and more time had the ability to develop sophisticated cultures capable of supporting inventors, artists, and politicians capable of making great changes. Other critics cite biological differences in humans, saying that Diamond purposefully ignores these differences. This might be true, but not important. After all, if all humans evolved from a common set of ancestors, how could biological differences evolve apart from environment? Again, place and time trumps. Naturally, the book's loudest opponents are those who feel threatened on a personal level by Diamond's thesis. Those who want to cherish the accomplishements of their ancestors. Those who feel that political systems are the result of the character of the people ..... Those who feel comforted by the color of their skin.
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Summary: If combining Science w/History is Scientism,Scientismist beI
Review: "Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond Normally, when I read an argumentative book I attempt to find holes and flaws in logic, in an attempt to sift through to the persuasive. As I read Diamond, perhaps that critical faculty ebbed - more likely, I just found myself ebullient at finding a book that so deftly unites history (and pre-history) with science. No major criticism comes to mind, though I'm sure with the amount of information packed into 425 pages, experts in their respective fields might have differing perspectives on the more contentious archaeological and historical issues that Diamond presents (e.g. dating of migrations like Clovis - though Diamond seems fairly careful to differentiate between his views and those having more consensus.). Abstracting Diamond, my only real analogy could be a computer program called SimCity, which allows a person to tinker with a city's fauna and geography and observe the results. It's a SimCivilization view of human history. Rather than looking primarily at isolated incidents, say, the assassination of Abe Lincoln, it is sort of a meta-history that looks at the trends of history and tries to correlate those trends with geographic variables. Diamond's explanations span continents, showing that Australia and Tasmania's until recent technological backwardness is linked to the nutrient-poor and metal limited environment, rather than as "explained" by the 19th century colonialist ethnocentric presuppositions (or to put it in a less biased manner the technology the Aborigines had met the need of different conditions, and had less resources to build upon) . The European conquest of the Americas, likewise had to do with the isolation of the complex societies of the Americas by latitude differentials (slowing the spread of agriculture from one place to another, versus the East West axis of Eurasia which promoted the spread of domesticated crops across a wide area) and natural boundaries, coupled most importantly with a relative lack of native domesticable species. The biological and scientific components of Diamond's theorizing come into the fore when he discusses the nature of epidemic diseases, and their spread from livestock to human hosts, which leads to human populations with greater immunity over many generations in areas so effected (if they aren't hit at one stroke with wave after wave of diseases with entirely no immunity as happened with most of the former inhabitants of North America.). I think one of the things that excited me the most about Diamond was the stark contrast in his method of history in comparison to my rather dismal experiences with some other "historians" (Diamond is a professor of physiology). Sure, Diamond has ideological views, but they aren't the whole interpretive lens, and don't bog down his prose. He brings observations to the table, and doesn't overtly bring a non-empirical ideological prism through which history must be explained (though of course there may be the turf-defending rote charge of scientism, in which case I await the postmodern attempt to deconstruct paleontology as successfully as Sokal (?) mockingly deconstructed physics. Why at 2500 B.C.E. do the humanities' explanations suddenly become omnipotent? So the humanities and history chairs at universities can feel like what they're doing is important, and equally so?)
Rating:
Summary: An amazing analysis of history
Review: Jared Diamond does not explain why everything in the world is the way it is today, but he does a very good job explaining how a few basic environmental factors broadly shaped the distribution of power among peoples from the earliest dates in human civilization. The powers that he mentions (in Part 3 of the book) are those of advanced weaponry, writing systems that made communication more efficient, immunity to disease, and complex political organization. What makes this book so interesting, though, is his discussion of the role of agriculture, animal domestication, and geographic location in creating a setting that favored or hindered the development and proliferation of "guns, germs, and steel." The first part of the book introduces the reader to this idea, but it is he second part of the book, "The Rise and Spread of Food Production," that explains it and thus encompasses most of the premise upon which the book builds. The fourth part of the book is a series of quick case studies where Diamond shows his thesis in action. It is not without value since it is empirical evidence for his theory, but it becomes a little repetitive and the joy of discovering new knowledge fades. And I agree with others who thought Diamond's political correctness a little distracting. Nonetheless, it is enlightening and fun to read and what more can one ask for than that?
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Summary: Learned a lot
Review: I found this book tremendously interesting. It tries to answer the question of why, when different cultures come into contact, one will usually take the other. For example, it asks why the Europeans defeated the Native Americans instead of the the Aztecs sailing across the ocean and colonizing Spain. I think the reason that I am so excited about this book is that I actually *learned stuff*. I never knew how or why certain animals or plants were domesticated. I never knew why the "Fertile Crescent" is now just a big desert. I certainly never knew that Madagascar was colonized by people from Indonesia, as opposed to people from Africa. And so on. I you are at all interested in history or geography, this is a book that you will be happy you read.
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