|
|
Customers who bought this book also bought:
Click here for more suggestions...
Auctions and zShops sellers and our other stores recommend:
Reviews
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
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. Amazon.com
Life isn't fair--here's why: Since 1500, Europeans have, for better and worse, called the tune that the World has danced to. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond explains the reasons why things worked out that way. It is an elemental question, and Diamond is not nearly the first to ask it. However, he performs a singular service by relying on scientific fact rather than specious theories of European genetic superiority. Diamond, a professor of physiology at UCLA, suggests that the geography of Eurasia was best suited to farming, the domestication of animals, and the free flow of information. ... read more James Shreeve, New York Times Book Review
An ambitious, highly important book. --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title The New Yorker
The scope and explanatory power of this book are astounding. --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title
See all reviews...
Customer Reviews
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other readers!
Thought provoking synthesis of human biology and history
|
Reviewer:
Warren C. Lathe III
from Heidelberg, Germany
December 8, 1999
|
As a evolutionary biologist I found Guns, Germs and Steel an excellent read and very thought provoking. As some of the few critics have pointed out, some of his ideas are not new. What is new is that Diamond was able to bring all these ideas together and synthesize them into something quite new and fasinating. The development of human cultures was surely influenced by geography and environment. Diamond has given an incredibly well thought out explanation and theory. The book might seem to some a bit long, perhaps repetitive, but I found it engrossing. It provoked thought (it now makes sense why native Americans were so suseptible to European diseases and not so much the reverse!), overturned my previously held beliefs and meshed human biology and history very well. A must read for biologists, historians, and the general public. And as to the rare reviewer who suggests the book is 'politically correct', from most of their reviews, I have gotten the feeling they hate it because it threatens their closely held world views. All the more reason it deserves the accolades it has received!
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
|
|
12 people found this review helpful.
0 did not.
|
|
Inspiring thoughts on how our human societies came about
|
Reviewer:
Elmar Heeb
from Zurich, Switzerland
December 5, 1999
|
Diamond explores how and why our human societies evolved so differently as they did. What makes this book an interesting read is that Diamond tries hard to keep the arguments as objective as possible. He usually starts a new thought with some relevant and often provoking questions. Not only does this make the text stimulating to read, but it helps the reader compare his thoughts with the extensive answers that Diamond provides. If you are ready to take a "walk" through 13000 years of history you will discover lots of new ways to look at the world we live in.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
|
|
1 people found this review helpful.
0 did not.
|
|
Extremely interesting
|
Reviewer:
Jesse Ruderman
from Rancho Palos Verdes, California
December 5, 1999
|
Guns, Germs, and Steel examines broad patterns of history: the spread of human populations, the spread of food production, and the recent European dominaton. Diamond explains how these patterns arose from geography, not from differences among people, attacking the roots of racism. The book very well written, discussion many aspects of the interaction among groups and races, and should greatly reduce your doubt that Europeans were merely lucky.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
|
|
5 people found this review helpful.
0 did not.
|
|
Tour-de-force
|
Reviewer:
A reader
from Boston, USA
December 3, 1999
|
This is a real tour-de-force. Jared Diamond is one in a million, w/expertise in linguistics, New Guinea, anthropology, evolution and more. Drawing on all of these areas and others, he gives the only convincing explanation I've read of why Eurasian technology & culture have come to dominate the world. For those like me who enjoy reading about natural history, this is a genuinely fascinating book.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
|
|
2 people found this review helpful.
3 did not.
|
|
See all 164 customer reviews...
Customers who bought titles by Jared Diamond also bought titles by these authors:
Look for similar books by subject:
Browse other History, Nonfiction titles.
|
