Number of Pages: 494
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
Release Date: 1997
"Life isn't fair--here's why: Since 1500, Europeans have, for better & worse, called the tune that the world has danced to. In Guns, Germs & Steel, Jared Diamond explains the reasons why things worked out that way. It's an elemental question. Diamond is certainly not the 1st to ask it. However, he performs a singular service by relying on scientific fact rather than specious theories of European genetic superiority. Diamond, a UCLA physiologist, suggests that the geography of Eurasia was best suited to farming, the domestication of animals & the free flow of information. The more populous cultures that developed as a result had more complex forms of government & communication, & increased resistance to disease. Finally, fragmented Europe harnessed the power of competitive innovation in ways that China didn't. (For example, the Europeans used the Chinese invention of gunpowder to create guns & subjugate the New World.) Diamond's book is complex & a bit overwhelming. But the thesis he methodically puts forth--examining the "positive feedback loop" of farming, then domestication, then population density, then innovation etc.--makes sense. Written without bias, Guns, Germs & Steel is good global history."
- Goodreads.com
Let me start off by saying that I have very mixed feelings about this novel. I read this for summer work for my AP World History class, so I knew that it was going to be different from what I usually read (seeing as how I usually read YA, this would be VERY different). The truth is that there are some parts of this book that I really liked, and then there were parts that I couldn't wait to be over with.
For example, I found that I was very interested in the way writing systems progressed over time. Back when writing systems were first developed, they were mainly only used by scribes to record taxes and such. They way we use writing today is so incredibly different from that that it's sort of amazing.Today, anyone can write as long as they are capable of learning. That just fascinated me.
However, I didn't enjoy reading about the geography of things, or about the societies that used to live in Africa but now don't. To be honest, I found that all kind of boring.
Yet looking back, the writing was excellent, the organization of the book was easy to follow, and I learned a lot of knew vocab words. So I guess the only thing I'm complaining about is some of the content. Maybe after I take this class I'll have a different view of it.
My Rating: :0) :0) :0) 3 out of 5 smileys. So it definitely wasn't the worst book ever, but it wasn't the best. But for a book that I wouldn't normally choose to read, it honestly wasn't that bad.
Would I recommend it to a friend?: Only if they enjoyed reading about history and some science. If not, they probably wouldn't like this book very much.
Yours,
NutFreeNerd
I'm pretty sure I've seen a movie the author helped produce on this book... I found it quite interesting as a movie, but I wouldn't know about the book. Do you know if this book is a movie? Or maybe I'm thinking of something else?
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