Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $14.91
You Save: $10.04 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Jared Diamond
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2005-07-11
ISBN: 0393061310
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: W. W. Norton

Book Reviews of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Book Review: An entertaining, informative journey through human history
Summary: 4 Stars

Ever wonder how the Europeans managed to conquor the Americas, and not the other way around? Well, if you're unfortunate enough to have that much time on your hands, there's now a book tailor-made for you! Jared Diamond details how some civilizations have come to conquor others, and not vice versa. Obviously, they do this by utilizing guns, germs, and steel (gee, wonder where he gets the title from?)...but the underlying question, of course, is HOW certain societies got those advances, and how others did not?

I'm not a professional historian, biologist, anthropologist, or what-have-you, so I can't state boldly that Diamond's evidence holds up. But his argument does have a certain logic about it. Not saying there aren't other factors that he should consider (environment can't be the only reason people do what they do), but he does present a convincing argument, at least to this layman (and the fact that we're still reading this book 10 years later suggests professionals have found it food for thought as well).

A note to casual readers, as many of you probably are. There are sections of this book that become a bit monotonous; the three chapters detailing the rise of food production in various world societies is a bit mind-numbing (blame our violence-soaked media), and there's a lot of information that gets tossed around here without thorough explanation. Never fear, though--this book is well-worth the read, and is largely entertaining. Diamond's prose would make for a good textbook (there are questions in the back accompanying this volume; not sure what class you could read this in, but I would reccommend it for anyone interesting in trying it); he places a bit too much emphasis upon New Guinea (where he has performed years of field research), but we can't blame him for writing about what he loves, can we? "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is an interesting, thought-provoking book about the rise and fall of society throughout the ages. Highly reccommended for anyone with even a passing interest on the subject.

Summary of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

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.
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.

Until around 11,000 BC, all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.

The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren't native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences.

He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, Guns, Germs and Steel encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers. 32 illustrations.

Early Civilization Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in A few of my Favorite Books!
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials) ImageInfluence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials)
by Robert B. Cialdini
Collins; Published: 2007-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops: $17.95
How to Win Friends & Influence People ImageHow to Win Friends & Influence People
by Dale Carnegie
Pocket; Published: 1998-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops: $14.00
Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means ImageLinked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means
by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
Plume; Published: 2003-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $15.00
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking ImageBlink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay Books; Published: 2007-04-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops: $15.99
The World Is Flat ImageThe World Is Flat
by Thomas Friedman
Penguin Books Ltd (UK); Published: 2007-07-31; Paperback; Book
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies ImageGuns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by Jared Diamond
W. W. Norton; Published: 2005-07-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops: $24.95
The Equation for Excellence: How to Make Your Child Excel at Math ImageThe Equation for Excellence: How to Make Your Child Excel at Math
by Arvin Vohra
Roland Media Distribution; Published: 2008-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.99
The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History ImageThe Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History
by Howard Bloom
Atlantic Monthly Press; Published: 1997-03-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.14
Price in other shops: $16.00
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference ImageThe Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay Books; Published: 2002-01-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.80
Price in other shops: $14.95
Similar Books and other products
Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism ImagePassages from Antiquity to Feudalism
by Perry. Anderson
Verso Books; Published: 1997-05-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.50
Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World (Global Century Series) ImageSomething New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World (Global Century Series)
by J. R. McNeill, John Robert McNeill, Paul Kennedy
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2001-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.65
Price in other shops: $19.95
The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author ImageThe Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author
by Richard Dawkins
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2006-05-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.01
Price in other shops: $15.95
World Civilizations: The Global Experience, Combined Volume, Atlas Edition (5th Edition) ImageWorld Civilizations: The Global Experience, Combined Volume, Atlas Edition (5th Edition)
by Peter Stearns, Michael Adas, Stuart Schwartz, Marc Jason Gilbert
Longman; Published: 2007-03-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $85.85
Price in other shops: $125.33
A Short History of Nearly Everything ImageA Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
Broadway; Published: 2004-09-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.56
Price in other shops: $16.95
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor ImageThe Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
by David S. Landes
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1999-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.75
Price in other shops: $18.95
Guns, Germs, and Steel ImageGuns, Germs, and Steel
Release date: 2005-07-12; DVD
Best price: $24.99
Price in other shops: $34.98
Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (Science Masters) ImageWhy Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (Science Masters)
by Jared Diamond
Basic Books; Published: 1998-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops: $15.00
The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) ImageThe Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.)
by Jared M. Diamond
Harper Perennial; Published: 2006-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.10
Price in other shops: $14.95
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed ImageCollapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by Jared Diamond
Published: 2005-12-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.70
Price in other shops: $17.00
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories