'Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies' by Jared Diamond explores the impact of geography and environmental factors on the development of different human cultures throughout history. Diamond delves into topics such as the rise of civilizations, the spread of agriculture, technological advancements, and the interactions between different societies. The writing style of the book is described as informative and thought-provoking, although some readers find it lengthy and repetitive at times. Diamond presents a theory that emphasizes the role of luck and geographic circumstances rather than biological superiority in shaping the course of human history.
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From The Publisher:
Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? Evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns.
The story begins 13,000 years ago, when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Around that time, the paths of development of human societies on different continents began to diverge greatly. Early domestication of wild plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and other areas gave peoples of those regions a head start. Only societies that advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage acquired a potential for developing writing, technology, government, and organized religions-as well as those nasty germs and potent weapons of war. It was those societies, that expanded to new homelands at the expense of other peoples. The most familiar examples involve the conquest of non-European peoples by Europeans in the last 500 years, beginning with voyages in search of precious metals and spices, and often leading to invasion of native lands and decimation of native inhabitants.
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1 comment(s)
Not sure how to rate non-fiction because I don't read as much of it, so...3.5 stars rounded up? Some interesting theories on anthropology/world history, topics I don't know too much about, written by someone who studied ornithology/biology, topics I do know a lot about. I listened to an abridged version, which did a great job keeping my attention. Might be worth checking out the full version, or at least reading some more books on the subject. Or maybe a more recent book, since I feel like the ideas in this one might be a bit outdated.
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About the Author:
Jared Diamond is a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. The recipient of numerous awards, he has published more than 200 articles in such prestigious magazines as Discover and Nature.
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