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Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (平装)
by Jared Diamond
| Category:
Non-fiction, Civilization, Human society, History |
| Market price: ¥ 198.00
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MSL rating:
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| MSL Pointer Review:
An epic thoroughly researched and well-written and a must read for the innately inquisitive. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 16 items |
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Kirkus Reviews (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
MacArthur fellow and UCLA evolutionary biologist Diamond (The Third Chimpanzee, 1992, etc.) takes as his theme no less than the rise of human civilizations. On the whole this is an impressive achievement, with nods to the historians, anthropologists, and others who have laid the groundwork. Diamond tells us that the impetus for the book came from a native New Guinea friend, Yali, who asked him, ``Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?'' The long and short of it, says Diamond, is biogeography. It just so happened that 13,000 years ago, with the ending of the last Ice Age, there was an area of the world better endowed with the flora and fauna that would lead to the take-off toward civilization: that valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers we now call the Fertile Crescent. There were found the wild stocks that became domesticated crops of wheat and barley. Flax was available for the development of cloth. There was an abundance of large mammals that could be domesticated: sheep, goats, cattle. Once agriculture is born and animals domesticated, a kind of positive feedback drives the growth toward civilization. People settle down; food surpluses can be stored so population grows. And with it comes a division of labor, the rise of an elite class, the codification of rules, and language. It happened, too, in China, and later in Mesoamerica. But the New World was not nearly as abundant in the good stuff. And like Africa, it is oriented North and South, resulting in different climates, which make the diffusion of agriculture and animals problematic. While you have heard many of these arguments before, Diamond has brought them together convincingly. The prose is not brilliant and there are apologies and redundancies that we could do without. But a fair answer to Yali's question this surely is, and gratifyingly, it makes clear that race has nothing to do with who does or does not develop cargo. |
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William H McNeil (The New York Review of Books) (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
Guns, Germs and Steel is an artful, informative and delightful book...there is nothing like a radically new angle of vision for bringing out unsuspected dimensions of subject and that is what Jared Diamond has done. |
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Colin Renfrew, Nature (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
A book of remarkable scope...One of the most important and readable works on the human past. |
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Edward O. Wilson (Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University) (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
No scientist brings more experience from the laboratory and field, none thinks more deeply about social issues or addresses them with greater clarity, than Jared Diamond as illustrated by Guns, Germs, and Steel. In this remarkably readable book he shows how history and biology can enrich one another to produce a deeper understanding of the human condition. |
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Martin Sieff (Washington Times) (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
Serious, groundbreaking biological studies of human history only seem to come along once every generation or so… Now [Guns, Germs, and Steel] must be added to their select number… Diamond meshes technological mastery with historical sweep, anecdotal delight with broad conceptual vision, and command of sources with creative leaps. No finer work of its kind has been published this year, or for many past. |
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Alfred W. Crosby (Los Angeles Times) (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
[Jared Diamond] is broadly erudite, writes in a style that pleasantly expresses scientific concepts in vernacular American English, and deals almost exclusively in questions that should interest everyone concerned about how humanity has developed… [He] has done us all a great favor by supplying a rock-solid alternative to the racist answer… A wonderfully interesting book. |
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Ian Brown (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
When you boil it down, Diamond says that Eurasians conquered the world because Eurasia (including North Africa) is big, with lots of domesticable plants and animals, where agricultural techniques could easily spread about (because of the large climate zones created by the continent's east-west orientation). The western hemisphere, with its north-south orientation, was hampered by barriers to the spread of agriculture in the form of relatively small climate bands, and the growth of America's civilizations (and similarly Africa's and Australia's civilizations) was relatively slowed.
Although he briefly talks about his reasons that the Europeans, rather than the Chinese, were the ones that went on to colonize the rest of the world, it's really a different issue than his main thesis.
There's a "really, I'm not racist because I think that whites are dumb" tone to the book, which is a little off-putting, and claims that this book explains the historical development of the world are overblown. Nevertheless, it's full of interesting information and suggested connections that I hadn't thought of. It's worth reading; just don't expect the answer to life, the universe, and everything. |
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Jarrod Knudson (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
Well-researched and very well-presented. A must read for the innately inquisitive. This book really drives the determinism vs. free will debate. Outside factors were probably very much responsible for the development of human culture and technology in some parts of the world and NOT in others.
Diamond explains how the presence of native plant and animal species and their domestication led to the rise of various societies throughout the globe. The presence of such resources gave way to advancement in civilization unparalleled in areas of the globe lacking in plant and animal species that lacked potential for domestication. Domestication led to the production of food by specialists (i.e. all members of a society not producing their own food as in hunter-gatherer societies). This freed other members in the society to specialize in other endeavors: skilled labor, warfare, politics, writing etc. Metallurgy was born and man harnessed the metals in the earth to create new superior metal tools and weapons. The result was a rise in power in some areas of the world with others lagging behind still hunting and gathering as nomads. Domestication led to permanent settlements, population growth and technology explosions. Permanent settlements harboring people and animals in close quarters led to the proliferation of infectious disease. These new higher societies waged warfare on lower societies bringing their metal weapons and germs to the battlefield. The germs, coupled with superior warfare technology secondary to the ability of certain members of society to specialize as full-time soldiers meant the undoing of primitive hunter-gatherer societies and the rise of empires. Eventually, the empires wiped out or pushed lower societies into the remote corners of the globe.
A tortuous chain of events leading to the rise of specific civilizations is unraveled before your eyes by Jared Diamond, who has spent years traveling and researching his topic. He includes facts from multiple disciplines as well as hypothetical syntheses of the facts. However, he is careful to differentiate between scientific data and logical speculation, cautiously synthesizing his theories without hesitating to point out the gaps in data. In other words, he's a careful thinker who does not attempt to persuade the reader to buy into conclusions based on moot conjecture alone.
This is a truly fascinating book. It appeals to many disciplines. I found it to be a blazing page turner. |
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C. Daley (MSL quote), USA
<2006-12-30 00:00>
I started this book interested in the scientific foundation of the development of human societies. Jared Diamond does an excellent job of distilling the vast complexity of development into a few manageable trends. He uses a compelling mix of data from around the world to illustrate that these major themes are responsible for much of the variety we see today.
In contrast to the statements by some reviewers, he does not arbitrarily ignore the role of other individual factors; instead, he suggests that these factors represent small variations in the larger trends. It is possible for an individual to accelerate or slow the development of technology (or any other major trend), but an individual alone cannot reverse the overall trend of technological development.
In a more specific example that has occasionally been attacked, Diamond suggests (I believe correctly) that the unification of China, by limiting the potential for competition among individual states, was the aggregate trend responsible for slowing China's technical progress. The fact that a single Chinese Emperor disallowed a particular technology did not make that individual the critical factor; other kings tried to do the same thing in a fragmented Europe and failed. Instead, the failure of an edict by the European King to slow technological progress was due to the fragmented and competing nations in Europe, not the particular virtues (or lack thereof) of the individual. In this sense, individuals may be the proximate cause of many events, but it is the macro-circumstances which are largely responsible for their success and the fact that their actions have been recorded in the annals of history.
While the science was interesting and compelling, I found the history of the migration and displacement of human populations the real eye-opener. Our modern history records, with much moral fervor, the subjugation of Native American, South African, and Australian populations by European conquerors. This book reminds us that these are only the most recent chapters in a human history full of such displacements. South Chinese into the islands of the south pacific, North Chinese into south China, Black Western Africans into the southern half of Africa, and only more recently the better known European conquests. More amazingly, the book does not make a moral judgment on any of these events; instead, it unemotionally tells the story of human history. Indeed it even helps us understand why the Europeans were so successful in the regions where they are now the dominant population and so unsuccessful in other regions.
This book is not light reading, but I believe it successfully rises above modern racism and politically correct debate to address the major trends which have shaped the human populations of our planet. Do not read this book for solutions, it has none. Read the book so that you will understand the problems which you wish to understand or solve. |
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H. Ong (MSL quote), Singapore
<2006-12-30 00:00>
This book examines why history unfolds differently in different continents, specifically, why did human development proceed at such different rates in different continents. In Jared's analysis of the world's development, he narrows down to be primarily the initiation of food production with the availability of plants and animals or livestock for domestication, which in chain and cyclic reaction, changes the human lifestyle from nomadic to sedentary, thereby causing an increase in human population, which in turn promotes invention, innovation and technology, the development of writing, and likewise also leads to the evolution of germs and viruses, as a result of humans coming in closer contact with the domesticated livestock.
A factor that aids in food production is the orientation of the geographical axis. Having an E-W axis orientation is an advantage, as compared to that of a N-S axis orientation. An E-W axis means having the same latitude, implying same or similar day length and seasonal variations. Therefore plants or livestock can easily adapt when transported from one E-W zone to another E-W zone.
To start with, all continents are not equal in terms of availability of plants and livestock for domestication. Five centers of origin of food production are identified; the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, Andes and Eastern US. Among the five centers, the Fertile Crescent leads in terms of a number of factors. First, it possesses the world's largest Mediterranean climate, which implies a high diversity of wild plants and animal species. Second, it experiences the greatest climatic variations from season to season and year to year, which implies that this variation favors the evolution of an especially high percentage of annual plants. Third, it has a wide range of altitudes and topographies within a short distance. This implies a corresponding variety of environments, a high diversity of wild plants and a staggered harvest season. Fourth, it possesses wealth in quantity of domesticable plants/crops and livestock/mammals. Therefore it correspondingly faces less competition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and promotes a sedentary lifestyle instead.
There are six factors for considering the domestication of animals. First, we have to evaluate in terms of the animals' diet, that is to quantify the efficiency of the conversion of food biomass into consumer's biomass. Second, we have to consider the animal's growth rate. For example, an elephant has to wait for 15 years to reach adult size, which explains why elephants tend to be held captive in the wild only after they have reached close to adult size. Third, there is the problem of captivity breeding. Fourth, some animals tend to have a nasty disposition such as the capability of killing humans. Fifth, some animals tend to show a greater tendency to panic. Therefore nervous species are difficulty to keep in captivity. Finally, different animal species possess a different social structure. Those that function as a herd and maintain a well-developed dominance hierarchy are easier for domestication. From this, we can see why even though Africa has a large selection of mammals, these animals such as zebras, rhinoceros, tigers, leopards, etc are difficult to tame and domesticate. But rather animals such as horses, cows, etc are easier to tame and domesticate.
With the advent of food production, diseases or germs tend to evolve from human populations' close and long intimacy with domestic animals. The characteristics of epidemics are they spread quickly and efficiently from infected person to nearby persons. They tend to be restricted to humans and the survivors will develop antibodies. For diseases to sustain themselves, they need a human population that is sufficiently numerous and densely packed. As an example, with Native Americans, they remain as hunter-gatherers due to limitation of domesticable plants and animals. Since they did not practice food production, they have minimum contact with animals and therefore less occurrences of diseases. On the other hand, Eurasians, from the start of food production, have close contact with their domesticated animals, resulting in evolution of diseases and development of antibodies. As an example, when the Spanish began to intrude into Mexico, they brought their diseases with them. The natives upon encountering these diseases, were slowly wept out since they lacked the immunity or resistance to combat these diseases or germs.
With a larger human population, humans can take on different tasks such as potters, farmers, iron-smiths, etc. This also leads to invention, innovation and technology, of which among them are metallurgy. They start having tools (axe, grinders, etc) and weapons (swords, guns, rifles, cannons, etc) made from steel, iron, etc, as compared to the past where the tools are normally made from wood or stone. Therefore regions with a head start on food production, is able to gain a head start towards development of guns and steel. The increase in human population also brings the onset of writing. Knowledge and writing brings power, as it is possible to transmit knowledge with far greater accuracy and in far greater quantity and detail from more distant lands and more remote times.
As a conclusion, the striking differences between long term histories of people of different continents have been due not to innate differences in the people themselves, but to differences in their environments.
This book further elaborates on the present time frame, whereby Fertile Crescent, even though it has a good head start with locally available concentration of domesticable wild plants and animals, it committed an ecological suicide by destroying its own resource base, What was previously fertile woodlands, it has been unfortunately transformed into an eroded scrub and desert region, gradually over time eliminating itself as a major center of power of innovation.
On the other hand, Europe received crops, livestock, technology and the writing system from the Fertile Crescent and has over time made significant progress ahead of the Fertile Crescent.
To further analyze the present time frame as to why a few nations still remain relatively backwards, even though global information and technology are more easily available and accessible, as compared to the past. I believe the following few factors play a significant role. First, the influence of religion has to be considered. There are some religions that are based on a centralized body of authority. They dictate what is the social norm, the correct and wrong expectations and the education standards, that is, they teach whatever they want the general public to know only. Therefore the general population remains ignorant of the global world's progress. Second, the type of government equally plays an important role. It is obvious a communist country tends to restrict access of information to their general population. On the other hand, a democratic country tends to promote accessibility of information. Third, each general race has their own motivations. For example, we know in a particular trade such as finance, etc, quite a significant number of its work force tends to consist of a particular race. There are some races that just tend to be laid back in their daily lifestyle, unless given incentives to make progress.
Overall, I feel this book is a good read and provides some reasonable basis, from which you can further add your own thoughts. |
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