Natural selection forced Eurasians to develop immunity to a wide range of pathogens. Retrieved September 21, The conversation turned to the obvious differences in power and technology between Yali’s people and the Europeans who dominated the land for years, differences that neither of them considered due to any genetic superiority of Europeans. MegaSolipsist He never said it was geographically disposed towards poverty and backwardness, just that the geography inhibits the spread of domesticated crops that …more He never said it was geographically disposed towards poverty and backwardness, just that the geography inhibits the spread of domesticated crops that are vital for agriculture and contained much less domestic-able animals than Eurasia, thereby severely limiting the speed of it’s development. This book would have benefited from multiple authorship, particularly a partnership with someone who had some actual experience with historical research and thinking, because the incessant lazy errors are impressively offensive – Diamond keeps predicating his argument on such and such historical facts, but the facts he’s using are flawed and wrong. Thus at large-scales, Diamond argues, his scientific approach to history has validity and explanatory power despite inaccuracy at shorter scales.

Europe for Diamond, was sufficiently separated by geographical features to warrant balkanization but at the same time sufficiently geographically open to not prevent the difussion of technology and resources. There is also the question as to how technology arises from all this apparent Eurasian advantage. View all 7 comments. They’re only going to get worse, too. How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed , mainly because it told a story about the lost cultures examined. Retrieved May 3, Thanks to the blessed position of the Middle East with respect to its easy-to-store and high nutrition-yield grain crops, its access to suitable animals to exploit for protein and to pull ploughs; this region consequently allowed population to shoot up and allowed rapid development of complex hierarchical societies to develop.

Of the remaining nine, only two the llama and alpaca both of South America are indigenous to a thhesis outside the temperate region of Eurasia. The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectualmoralor inherent genetic superiority.

Guns, Germs, and Steel – Wikipedia

Dec 10, Manny rated it it was amazing Shelves: I east-west orientation allowed breeds domesticated in one part of the continent to ni used elsewhere through similarities in climate and the cycle of seasons. The core of Diamond’s explanation is that Europeans were essentially lucky in two respects. Actually, fossil records show huge populations of horses, oxen, and millions of other large mammals in the Americas until about 11, BC.


The premise of the book is revealed in the prologue in a conversation between the author and a New Guinea native who lives his very simple life in Stone Age conditions. Retrieved September 21, View all 22 comments.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Systematic studies by modern scientists do seem to support this conclusion. Even so, Diamond seems awkward in his attempts to justify the ways of the Blind Watchmaker to men as so. And indeed, while I can’t assess the validity of some of Diamond’s scientific claims–though the continent axis theory falls apart the more you start to think about it, as does his failure to consider the impact of human alteration of the environment–I do know that I’d expect better historical argumentation from an undergraduate history major.

The beauty of Diamond’s book is that it seems to pinpoint, with surprising simplicity, the original source of disequilibrium among men: Emory University historian Tonio Andrade writes that Diamond’s book “may not satisfy professional historians on all counts” but that it “does make a bold and compelling case for the different developments that occurred in the Old World versus the New he is less convincing in his attempts to separate Africa from Eurasia.

jared diamonds thesis in guns germs and steel

Diamond simplifies gerns movements of crops, animals, and human capital as something highly dictated by geography when in reality it was unpredictable human decision-making that resulted in the spread of not only crops but a whole variety of luxuries and non-essential commodities from China and across the Indian Ocean to places such as East Africa The Experience of Kenya and Tanzania.

For example, it’s hard to see how his analysis adds anything to our understand of conflicts such as the Greco-Persian wars, the rise and decline thexis Rome, the Napoleonic Wars, or the American Civil War.


What this boils down to is, Diamond is saying right in the bloody introduction to the whole book that he was the only one who could do this glorious project and he didn’t want to bring other people in because they might not agree with every single thing he’s saying. Having lived extensively with pre-industrial people, he says that we city-dwellers just don’t understand how well they know their flora and fauna, and how active their interest in them is.


Yep, if you are unlucky enough to be born on a continent or onto part of a continent with only anteaters, there is no fucking way you are going to get sheets, no matter how smart you are. ONLY people in Anthropology with a great understanding of theory.

Did Jared Diamond, writing in gunns late ‘s, just describe the United States today?

Answered May 8, I aim to show that while geography is important, jarer is not necessarily the deciding factor as to how powerful, 1 http: What are some good books for someone who liked Guns, Germs, and Steel?

In Eurasia, the number made for a critical mass which led to earlier civilization.

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

I cannot comment much about the contents, there are a lot of reviews that describe the contents well. Diamohds touches on why the dominant powers of the last years have been West European rather than East Asian especially Chinese.

That consideration tended to cause technology to develop most rapidly jardd continents with few geographic and ecological barriers to diffusion, either within that continent or on other continents. The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal part four.

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Agriculture in Aboriginal Australia: I especially enjoyed yhesis section about the process of domesticating plants and animals. Darwinian Misadventures in the Humanities, p The author uses very broad brush strokes to develop his main themes, both in geogra This is a thought-provoking, deeply interesting, controversial book investigating the reasons behind the bafflingly different rate of development of human societies in different parts of the world.

jared diamonds thesis in guns germs and steel

Societies, Networks, and Transitions: Eurasia also had the most contiguous land along generally the same latitude.