Rating: 
Summary: WORLD HISTORY AT ITS BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: In Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond hypothesizes that geographical positioning determined why certain Eurasian-influenced societies acquired an array of conquering forces, which included military technology, lethal diseases, and a complex societal organization, at an earlier historical period than other non-Eurasian influenced societies. For Diamond, the conquest of the Americas, Africa, and the South Pacific territories, should be traced to historical developments taking place from 11,000 B.C. to 1500 A.D. (p.16). These conquests, which were monopolized by European states, received their impetus from the diffusion of crops, livestock, technology, and writing systems, developed within the pre-modern Fertile Crescent (p.411).
Possessing the advantages of 1) a high diversity of plant and animal species, 2) a large climactic variation, 3) a wide range of latitudes, 4) a wealth in big mammals, and 5) a disposition towards an agricultural-sedentary lifestyle, the Fertile Crescent promoted food surpluses and high population densities, which gave rise to crowd diseases, a governmental bureaucracy dependent on an emerging writing system, and a technological advancement predicated on a culmination of previous invention and geographic reception to neighboring expertise and application (p.138-42, 205, 236, 245-46, 256). Diamond persuasively argues that the transmission and reception of technologically-advancing techniques of certain farming and writing systems could not overcome the tropical conditions of sub-Saharan Africa, the hot intervening lowlands of Central America, the inhospitable Saharan desert, and the arid Chihuahuan highlands (p.186-87,238).
In my opinion, Jared Diamond does a fantastic job of constituting a groundbreaking and nuanced interpretation of world history. Taking the Braudelian view of history a step further, Diamond brings a scientific methodology to the study of the inter-relation between geography and history. Although Diamond does dismiss the role of individuality in world history, he does not ignore its position. Rather to understand the function of men like Edison and Hitler in shaping certain historical eras, you must first place these individuals within the broad pattern of a historical synthesis (p.420). Finally, Diamond's greatest contribution to a world-historical perspective could be the nail he drives into the coffin of European preeminence and innate superiority. Through lucid reasoning, Diamond explains that the European conquest of the New World, which in his cited example is the Incan Empire of the sixteenth century, should not be interpreted as a result of unique European biology and ideology, but a culmination of an autocatalytic process resulting from technology, agricultural crops, and a writing system transmitted from Eurasia. Through these historical acquisitions, the Spanish conquistadores easily conquered Atahuallapa's regime thanks to a devastating European-imported small pox epidemic that preceded Pizarro's fateful landing, a lack of information concerning the gold-seeking intentions of the united Spanish Crown, and the horse-warfare techniques honed through centuries of Asiatic steppe warfare and now an indispensable asset to these disheveled Iberians (p.76-79). The treachery of Pizarro does not make a difference to Diamond, since even the nineteenth century Maori exhibited the same tendency (p.53). Rather, what matters is the geographical-loaded dice which dealt Pizarro a winning roll.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, with some problems
Review: I will admit I haven't finished this book. I got to the epilogue conclusion, and summed it up in the second paragraph: nature, or rather where groups are on the earth, not nurture (intelligence). Interesting reading otherwise, but the author's causal connections between events tend to be tenuous and some research aspects could have used some deeper work to better build his case. Keeping this in mind, worth the money in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: To broad of a topic
Review: I liked the book but it took to broad of an approach to looking at the role disease, location and food on society. I would suggest Plagues and People by William H. McNeil as a suppliment/replacement for his chapters on the role of disease on society and on horizontal vs vertical migration
Rating: 
Summary: Truly magnificent eye opener
Review: This has to be the book that brought into play, for me, a series of startling theories on the human condition. It is awesome as a starting point for gaining informaation on the world of genetics, evolution and the Human condition. It can be quite detailed but the writing style tends to be accessible, allowing for the book to draw you in. This also makes the the use of data and terminology far more digestable. As a critique of human history, it informs and analyses very effectively. It proves a most interesting read as you begion to discover the events that shaped and effected the course of human evolution and ultimately your oown existence. Mind Blowing! I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE AS IT WILL DFINITELY AFFECT THE WAY YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR OWN WORLD AND BEING!
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS AWESOME
Review: This is one of the best school books i have ever read. I know i have weird interests, but it merges evolutionary biology with history. Yes it has a seemingly polically correct premise, but in the end, Europe is not the only culture in the world. WAKE UP.
Rating: 
Summary: Bias under the guise of sociology
Review: I was recently assigned by my professor to read "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond. My classmates informed me that the book leaned to the boring side, as I expected an assigned book to be, but aside from boring it was also extremely biased. Of course its ok for authors to bias their books, but to assign an obviously biased book for reading is completely out of the question. It was completely anti-west and anti-globalization, as well as regarding Americans in a negative tone. In one chapter, Diamond rants on about how the primitive new Guineans who still live in huts are in fact smarter than the Europeans who settled North America. He says that since they can live off the land, they are superior to Americans and Europeans, who cannot. His thesis is correct, but it stands alone in the category of correctness. Its bad enough that he uses qualitative analyses (if not completely made up) to base his observations upon, but he goes on and just keeps repeating the same thing over and over again. It gets even worse: he rants on for nearly 500 pages. The only things that kept this horrible book alive were the diagram, because a diagram on a page meant there was no ranting on that page. Indicated above is my rating: 1 star, but I only put that since there wasn't a space for a 0 stars, which is what I really give it. Nothing personal, Jared, but why don't you stick to lecturing classes.
Rating:
Summary: A history of humanity's past 13,000 years
Review: -----------------------------------------------------------
How did the West grow rich and conquer the world? It
wasn't racial superiority, as the Victorians thought - indeed, Diamond
gives evidence that the average New Guinean may well be smarter
than the average Westerner. His own one-sentence summary of the
book is: "History followed different courses for different peoples
because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of
biological differences among the peoples themselves"[clunk]. Or, it's the
environment, stupid. Or, the West got lucky.I'm uncomfortable with history-as-polemics, but Diamond (usually)
keeps his facts and interpretations pretty well separated. And this is a
wonderful one-volume history of the human race. It is unusual, and
refreshing, to read a history written by a distinguished and literate
biological scientist. History isn't generally considered to be science -
"it's just one damn thing after another." But then, you could say the
same for large parts of astronomy, biology & geology. 13,000 years ago, the most recent Ice Age was ending, and people
everywhere still made their living as hunter-gatherers. Diamond starts
his story at the dawn of civilization. By Chapter 3, he's recounting
Pizarro's conquest of the Inca empire in 1532. In an afternoon, 168
Spanish soldiers routed an army of 80,000, killed 7,000, and captured
the Inca emperor. It's not surprising that the Spaniards would feel
superior. But the conquistadores' invisible allies had been at work
since 1492 - smallpox from Spain had killed the previous Inca emperor
and his heir, setting off a war of succession that fatally weakened the
empire. Diseases from Europe would ultimately kill up to 95% of the
native peoples of the Americas, often before they saw their first
European. The old American cultures were doomed from first contact,
even if the Old World visitors had been peaceful explorers and traders.
12,000 years of isolation had left native Americans with no resistance to
the lethal European microbes. Where did these diseases come from, and why didn't the Indians
return the favor by infecting Eurasia? Many came originally from
domestic animals (for example, measles and smallpox from cattle), and
required large, dense populations to evolve. The Indians had few
domestic animals - one reason why they were poorer than Eurasians,
and those (fortuitously) had no diseases that "made the jump" from
animals to humans - good evidence for Diamond's "history as luck"
hypothesis. Diamond's history is wonderful, full of new science, strange facts, and
great anecdotes. The polemics get repetitious and a bit defensive at
times, but can be safely skimmed. This would have been a better book
had it been written as straight history, letting the facts speak for
themselves - but it's still well worth reading. Recommended. Diamond, a professor of physiology at UCLA, is a frequent
contributor to Discover, Natural History, and Geo magazines. -- Pete Tillman is a consulting geologist based in Arizona.
Rating:
Summary: Decent primer on World History
Review: I'm grading this book against my high expectations: It won the Pulitzer and has been hailed as a revelation of explanatory power. I think it is a decent, but flawed, work of general world history. That's all. Diamond consolidates some facts and theories, but he presents no groundbreaking material. For an evolutionary biologist and ecologist, Diamond is surprisingly sparse on these topics. I wonder what schools Diamond attended if he was taught that Western Europeans dominate the world because they are superior. And Diamond's gushing affection for New Guineans (to whom he devoted many years of study) might have been endearing if he didn't insist they are more intelligent than Eurasians. Diamond tended to get a little repetitive with his thesis; with good editing and better organization, a hundred less pages would be an improvement. My worst disappointment: I felt like I was reading a textbook, not an exciting work of popular science. Did this book win the Pulitzer Prize because it is a politically correct admission of the non-superiority of Eurasians?
Rating:
Summary: good world history book
Review: Subtitled "the fates of human societies," this book attempts to answer the question: why are some societies more "advanced" than others. Diamond looks beyond immediate and proximate causes to ultimate causes, i.e.. different areas on the globe had different "starting materials" in the way of domesticable plants and animals as well as a geography which aided or impeded the spread of ideas, crops, and animals. In great detail, with strong logic, he traces the beginnings of civilization on all continents and supports it with ample evidence. Great book.
Rating:
Summary: No need to go into the theories here
Review: If you want to know what he's talking about before you read the book, the other reviews capture it well. Basically, it's a history of humankind, more specifically, a history of those times and accomplishments of humankind that have created the world we know today; its inequities, differences, and similarities. It is extremely interesting, I've heard most of his arguments put forth piecemeal by people in the past, but this book looks to the evolution not only of people, but the larger societies of the world today, and of those that are unknown to the world at large, and his ideas of how these groups ended up dominant or peripheral. The four stars would be five had the end not been so repetitive; it was actually difficult to get through parts of the last chapters, but overall, for all the effort and linkages among anthropoligical specialties, it is an amazing book.
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