Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jared DiamondEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-07-11
ISBN: 0393061310
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
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- ISBN13: 9780393061314
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Book Review: An impressive book with a convincing theory, but missing points
Summary: 4 Stars
The author mainly argues that societies developed differently on different continents because of advantages in geography, not advantages in human biology. In the book, we can conclude that there are four reasons to account for all historical development. Firstly, it is the number of the crops and animals to be domesticated. The second reason is the speed of agriculture development in the continents. The next reason is the knowledge communication between different continents. The forth reason is the size of population. Diamond argues that all of four factors have convincing evidences. And Diamond was able to explain geographical factors integrating knowledge from a wide range of subjects, including molecular biology, epidemiology, human genetics, linguistics, and archaeology. The book demonstrates the depth of the author's technical, linguistic, political, historical research. To the author's credit, when reading this book, I find myself accepting the term `geographical determinism' almost unconsciously. The theory Diamond sets forth is convincing enough, but the reality is more complex than simple geographical determinism--there are other factors at work, like culture and human decision, especially after the Neolithic Revolution.
This is an impressive book. On the one hand, Diamond answers the complex question, "why did Eurasians conquer, displace or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse?" using only three tiny objects: guns, germs and steel. Guns influence the course of political development. Germs are an additional thread of this transfer of power. Steel gives us a clue into technical advancement. The author does not get lost in complicated and trivial factors; on the contrary, he dismantles racially-based theory through analyzing environmental factors in the human history. On the other hand, Diamond brings to the book a great breadth of knowledge. When he began quoting writers from the Zhou Dynasty (first millennium BC), describing history many Chinese aren't even aware of, I was convinced of his credibility. As a scientist, I was able to appreciate Diamond's ability to express intricate and often inaccessible microbiological concepts in a clear way, to convey the magic of the microbial world to readers with a more general background. Take, for example, his description of the microbe's side of the spread of disease:
"Many of our `symptoms' of disease actually represent ways in which some damned clever microbe modifies our bodies or our behavior such that we become enlisted to spread microbes... the strategy practiced by the influenza, common cold, and pertussis (whooping cough) microbes, which induce the victim to cough or sneeze, thereby launching a cloud of microbes toward prospective new hosts."
As well-researched and thorough as it was, when you leave the book, you will have a suspicion that the author intentionally ignored the adverse evidences to support his opinions. In James Blaut's article, "Environmentalism and Eurocentrism", "he pointed out examples of North-South diffusion of crops, notably the cultivation of maize in both Peru and North America (1999)". But the book did not mention that several important crops that grow outside the temperate parts of Europe. And as a Chinese reader, I cannot eliminate a feeling that the writer always is looking for the evidence to support genetic racial equality while perhaps ignoring evidence that might suggest otherwise.
In the book, Wealth and Poverty of Nations, author David Landes said "China's conscious decision in the 1400's to isolate itself from other nations was the key event that caused it to lose its technological advantage and fall behind Europe". Diamond also addresses this point from a geographical view. His argument: China was able to become a monolithic, autocratic country because of geographical factors, most importantly, its geographic connectedness. However, I think it is too simple to explain why China fell behind Europe. More explanation can be drawn from a cultural basis, such as political freedom, capitalism and open debate. The thoughts of Confucius were embedded deeply into the people of China for almost 5,000 years, and Chinese people innately believed agriculture was more important than commerce and industry. Although the commerce made a progress to some extent, they did not pay enough attention to it thus advanced industry could not be developed quickly. Also, the prevailing notion that people should stay loyal to the emperor and never resist, allowed the Chinese people to blindly accept they were the so-called super-country the emperor claimed. Actually they had ability to explore new lands, but their culture told them they were strongest and they did not need to do so.
According to the statistics outlined in Andre Frank's, Reorient: Global Economy in the Asian Age, during the Ming Dynasty, China had a much stronger economy than Europe. Thus the Chinese found no need to conquer other countries for economic gain, instead focusing on the inner economical. The book did not address this point.
Cultural elements do work in the human history development. But there is a question why different countries have different cultural thoughts. Now that genetic biology is not the reason, geographical environment shaped the basic ring of human history. But Diamond could not clearly answer why Confucius thoughts emerged in China, not other places, so did Socrates in Europe. The complexity of the issue may, in itself, explain why this was not addressed in this book.
In summary, this book exhibits us a new picture of human history from a specific view of selecting three representative objects. In the book, you can view the fate of human societies from new vantage points. But you should have a bit of skepticism, because while Diamond convincingly argues that geographical elements play a vital role in the human history, culture and human decisions are also important.
Summary of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
With a new chapter. The phenomenal bestseller-over 1.5 million copies sold-is now a major PBS special.Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. This edition includes a new chapter on Japan and all-new illustrations drawn from the television series. 32 illustrations.
Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years.
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