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

The dis-oriented author is an eclectic reader. I find myself spending way too much time in hotels, airplanes and sitting by myself in restaurants. Therefore I read a wide variety of subjects, Guns, Germs and Steel however is a little bit out of the ordinary, even for me.

Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize winning book presents a theory of how nations and peoples came to be the way they are in the modern world. For example why did agriculture, cities and complex systems develop in Europe and the Middle East but not in North America?

Diamond's book answers the question, "How did the modern world come to be?"

In this book, Diamond sets out to refute the idea that differences in development, industrialization, military power, etc... are not the result of inherent or racial difference but rather things like the presence of domesticatable animals, plant diversity and geography along latitudinal or elevation zones.

For example, native Americans within North America were at a natural disadvantage since there were no large animal species suitable for domestication either as beasts of burden for plowing or as a food source. Cattle and horses came later with the Europeans. In addition to these disadvantages, crops that were domesticated a short distance away in Central America did not find there way to the Plains Indians because they were unsuitable for growing in the mountainous or desert regions in between. Therefore the natural barriers to diffusion prevented the plains Indians from developing agriculture and the institutions of government, commerce and warfare that inevitably follow.

The title of course refers to the disadvantage that the peoples of the Americas had in terms of technology (guns & steel) and disease resistance (germs). Having not lived in cities and not being in contact with domestic animals the natives of Central and South America were overcome by a handful of Spaniards. Diamond posits that this is not due to some defect in the natives but due to the accident of fate that gave the Europeans so many advantages.

A unique approach to a fascinating topic.

Guns, Germs and Steel gets 5 of 5 dis-oriented smileys

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