My first intention reading this book is not to seek knowledge in the real world, but to understand more about the setting/world making of fantasy fiction and science fiction. But this book gave me so much more than that, it gave me answers or some revelations about some of my personal thinking all these years.

I cannot comment much about the contents, there are a lot of reviews that describe the contents well.

Some interesting points on this book for me:
1. In my opinion, this book has pristine description the 1966 revolution in Indonesia.
2. This book has interesting theory of the losing of China vs. European since 15th century.
3. I found the epilogue is reminding me some with Asimov’s psychohistory, with chapter title: “THE FUTURE OF HUMAN HISTORY AS A SCIENCE”. For people who had read Foundation, please try the epilogue of this book.

There is at least one hint about a leading civilization destroying its own environment… but it is another story. Mr. Diamond described this idea on his next book, Collapse.

In the fields of geography and history, there are few more nettlesome turns of phrase than the vaguely Eurocentric 'The Middle East' and the academically petulant 'The Common Era' (or C.E and B.C.E. as a replacement for A.D. and B.C.) Jared Diamond avoids both of these, while introducing the more precise 'Southwest Asia.' This is an early indicator of the exactness and objectivity he shows throughout this epic overview of civilization's building blocks.

When reading nonfiction, I am often impressed by a particular author's style, breadth of research or interest in the details of humanity. But before Guns, Germs and Steel, I was never so moved by the analysis of the information presented. Before Guns, Germs and Steel, I never considered a continent's long axis (either north-south or east-west) significant to the development of the people that live there. So when Diamond presented this theory, I was dubious. But after reading his argument with all its copious details and seeing this theory applied to all corners of the Earth, I was convinced.

This is a book for anyone who has wondered why Europeans conquered Australia and the Americas so much easier than Sub-Saharan Africa or New Guinea. It's for anyone who has wondered why South Africa looks so much more European than most of the rest of Africa. It's for anyone who has wondered why we don't eat acorns. It's for anyone who wants to see abhorrent theories about 'racial superiority' calmly blasted to smithereens. It's for anyone with the patience to have all their historical assumptions challenged over the course of 500 glorious pages.

Edited 3-16-2017

Misleading! The actual title should be Germs, More Germs and a bit about Steel And Guns, but not very much on those last two really...I mean, we want to put Guns first because it's more attention-grabbing than Germs, but let's face it, this book is mostly about Germs.

Why has no publishing house knocked down my door trying to obtain my book titling services yet?!

Jared Diamond azóta klasszikussá vált világmagyarázó kötetében arra a kérdésre keresi a választ, hogy miért a spanyol király alattvalói gyalázták bele az amerikai kontinens megabirodalmait a földbe, holott mondjuk az Inka Császár is megjelenhetett volna hajóhadával Dover fehér sziklái alatt, az ő katonái is belelámagolhattak volna szerencsétlen európai nemzetek szívébe, hogy aztán kiszipolyozzák azokat. És akkor most kecsuául írnám ezt az értékelést. Vagy valami más, azóta kihalt nyelven. De nem így írom. Mégis, hogy lehet ez?

A szerző válasza – a végletekig leegyszerűsítve – az, hogy az eurázsiai kontinensnek rohadt nagy mákja volt. Ugyanis itt sokkal jobb hozamot biztosító gabonákat és hüvelyeseket lehetett vad megfelelőjükből nemesíteni, és itt akadt egy rakás nagytestű emlős is, ami nyitott volt a domesztikálásra – a disznó, a kecske, a juh, a tehén és a ló -, akik nem csak fehérjével és zsiradékkal látták el a népességet, de izomerejükkel is segítették őket. Nem is beszélve arról, hogy a ló személyében olyan szuperfegyverhez jutottak, ami egészen a gépfegyverek és a tankok megjelenéséig meghatározta a hadviselést. Bezzeg szegény aztékok, nekik csak a pulyka meg a tengerimalac maradt, és rajtuk nem annyira áll meg a nyereg. A táplálékbőség pedig lehetővé tette a magas népszaporulatot, valamint azt, hogy egyes emberek specializálódjanak iparra, hivatalnokoskodásra vagy katonáskodásra, ami pedig megágyazott az írásnak és a komplex államok kialakulásának, amelyek viszont a dinamikus technológiai fejlődés alapjai*.

Látni kell, Diamond mindenre a környezeti hatásokban, földrajzban, botanikában és zoológiában keresi a választ. Ennek a monotematikus megközelítésnek megfizethetetlen hozadéka, hogy partvonalon kívülre helyezi a rasszista világmagyarázatokat, a vérről és kulturális determinizmusról szóló ködös elméleteket – hisz ezek nélkül is megtalálja a racionális választ arra, miért sikerült Európának gyarmatosítani a világ többi részét. A kötet meggyőzően vázolja is fel Európa és Amerika, valamint Európa és Afrika összecsapásának előzményeit és a végkimenet miértjét, valamint számos kevésbé ismert, kisebb volumenű konfliktusra is magyarázatot ad – például hogy miképp özönlötték el a japánok az ainukat, vagy a bantuk a pigmeusokat. Ám azért arra, hogy az eurázsiai kontinensen belül miért Európa, és miért nem Kína vagy valamelyik muzulmán államalakulat teperte maga alá a többit kábé a XX. század közepéig, nem ad teljesen megnyugtató választ, mert ott nem tudja teljesen kiküszöbölni a társadalmi-kulturális változókat – bár tény, hogy hasznosan kiegészíti azokat. Úgyhogy az a fajta könyv, ami megkerülhetetlen alapmű ugyan, de magában olvasva a féloldalasság veszélyeit hordozhatja magában.

* És itt vannak még a járványok is, amelyeknek kialakulásában nagy szerepük volt a különböző háziasított állatoknak. Ezek a járványok aztán a hódítók előőrseként már azelőtt kiirtották Észak-Amerika indián lakosságának zömét, hogy maguk az európaiak megjelentek volna a mai Egyesült Államok területén.

n  “Why you white men have so much cargo [i.e., steel tools and other products of civilization] and we New Guineans have so little?”n

Jared Diamond is a biologist, who had a passion for studying birds, particularly the birds of New Guinea. But as he came to know and appreciate the many native people he met in his work, the question asked by a New Guinean named Yani remained with him. Why was it that westerners had so much relative to New Guinean natives, who had been living on that land for forty thousand years. Many found an explanation in racial exceptionalism. Diamond decided to find out. Was one group of people smarter than another? Why was there such dimorphism in the amount of cargo produced and toted by different groups?

The arguments he seeks to counter are those stating that since "civilization" came to full flower in the Eurasian countries and not in places where other races dominated, that this success indicated innate superiority. He offers a stunning analysis of why civilization emerged in the places in which it did.


Jared Diamond – image from The Guardian

Guns figure large in why some societies were able dominate others, but the development of guns was not a universal. The materials necessary are not equally distributed over the planet, and there are technological prerequisites.

It turns out that not every locale is ideal for the emergence of farming. He offers some detail on why farming flourished in some areas more than in others. The importance of domesticated animals is considered. Diamond shows how it was possible for them to have been domesticated in some, but not all of the theoretically possible locations. He discusses the impact of germs, the immunity defense developed by more urban dwellers, and the harm those germs can cause when those urban dwellers come into contact with peoples who lack such immunities. Although "Steel" figures prominently in the title, and is significant in its use in weaponry, this aspect is given the lightest treatment in the book. Diamond closes with a plea for history to be redefined as History Science, claiming that, as with many other "historical" sciences, it holds the elements necessary to merit the "science" designation.

While I might have been happier if the title had been Guns, Germs, and Seeds, it remains a seminal look at the whys and wherefores of how some societies came to flourish, often at the expense of others. It has nothing to do with genes. Guns, Germs and Steel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.


=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages

An  excellent National Geogrtaphic documentary  was made of this book. Here is a link to the first of its three episodes.

Diamond's book Collapse, is also amazing.

Did you ever wonder if there is a certain inevitability in the way world civilization and history has evolved? Jared Diamond’s work Guns, Germs and Steel argues, in effect, that the giant Eurasian continent (Europe and Asia combined) was predestined to take over the world.



Everything conspired in favor of Eurasia: climate, vegetation, topography, travel routes, variety of wild animals available to be domesticated, population distribution, mineral resources and even bacteria.

Compare Eurasia and Australia, for example, and you find that when humans evolved to the point of beginning agriculture, Eurasia had dozens of varieties of natural grains that could feed humans and a dozen potential draft and food animals. Australia had only two puny proto-grains and no potential draft animals. Were they going to harness a kangaroo or a koala? No contest.

Eurasia developed settled agriculture, food surpluses, dense populations, cities and complex social organizations. Due to climate and landform zones, Eurasian civilizations were then able to share inventions and culture with each other by trade or conquest in a broad east-west zone. Complex civilizations that developed elsewhere, such as those of the Aztecs and Incas, remained relatively isolated and had steep mountains and other geographic barriers to trade and broad movement.

Even the types of germs conspired to 'favor' European and Asian expansion. The virulent types of bacteria that developed among dense human populations in interaction with animal populations, which the Eurasians developed some immunity to, wiped out low-density indigenous societies on other continents when Europeans explored and settled new lands. On the other hand, non-Eurasian germs brought back from Africa and the New World had relatively little impact in Eurasia.



Many professional geographers and other academicians don’t like Diamond’s synthesis because it smacks too much of environmental determinism: the old “Northern peoples like the Vikings were warlike and fiercely independent; tropical folks were lazy and needed a whip to get them moving," etc.

When what's done is done, a Monday morning quarterback can tell us exactly why it happened that way. But other scenarios were possible. If one pre-Columbus Chinese emperor had not decided that it was a waste of money to build huge sailing ships, China could have discovered California. (The book 1421 : The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies.) Then the 'USA' or whatever it would have been called, would have been settled from west to east. All of us in the US would be speaking Chinese. Our history would be the story of crossing the Rockies from west to east. Then Diamond could use these same explanations to demonstrate why it had to happen this way.

A lot of ideas similar to Diamond’s can be found in older works such as Ellsworth Huntington’s 1945 book Mainsprings of Civilization.

Even if you don’t agree with his conclusions, Diamond gives us a lot to think about in a fact-crammed, yet very readable book that won a Pulitzer Prize.

Images: Map from slideplayer.com
An ancient Sumerian image from Wikipedia

[Edited 7/29/23]

What a terrific book.

Į šią knygą referavo profesorius Bumblauskas mano lankytose Civilizacijų istorijos paskaitose kokiais 2009 metais, kai buvau pasirinkęs šį dalyką kaip laisvąjį. Nors apie knygą žinojau seniai, perskaičiau tik dabar.

Tai dar viena duomenų sintezė apie tai, kodėl kai kurioms žmonių bendruomenėms sekėsi dominuoti, o kitos buvo nukariautos. Daugiausiai skirtumai aiškinami geografiniais veiksniais. Žmonės visur vienodi, bet kai kurios vietovės buvo pranašesnės, pavyzdžiui, dėl to, kad ten veisėsi prijaukintini gyvūnai ar augo žemės ūkiui tinkami augalai. Pradėjus apsirūpinti maistu iš žemės ūkio, gyventojai ėmė gyventi sėsliai, jų tarpe paplito infekcijos, o darbų pasidalijimas paskatino sudėtingesnių išradimų atsiradimą, įskaitant plieną ir paraką. Galiausiai, europiečių infekcijos žudė Amerikos čiabuvius ne mažiau efektyviai nei plieniniai kardai ir parakiniai šautuvai.

Kitas momentas - žemynai su vertikalia ašimi (kaip Amerikos ir Afrika) yra mažiau palankūs išradimų, naminių gyvulių ir augalų perimamumui tarp bendruomenių. Tos vietovės, kur tas perimamumas galėtų vykti, atskirtos vienos nuo kitų tropinio klimato zonomis (pavyzdžiui, kaip nuosaikesnio klimato Afrikos pietūs atskirti nuo šiaurės tropine centrine dalimi). Kita vertus, Eurazija pasižymi horizontalia ašimi, ir tai leido greitai paplisti tiems patiems labai naudingiems augalams ir gyvuliams visame regione nuo Kinijos iki Britanijos.

Šiaip patiko, bet pernelyg nenustebino, nes panašių knygų esu skaitęs ne vieną.

This book contains all the good stuff that a scientific approach can provide to the fundamental issues of life and history. Diamond puts all his cards on the table, presents his method of reasoning in a very clear way, clearly defines his starting-point questions, tests the hypotheses on his study object and weighs the value of his findings. This is like science should always be: clear, open and honest.

Diamond is wondering where the dominance of the Eurasian continent in world history is coming from. In essence, his assertion is that Eurasia had a clear comparative advantage over other continents due to a number of geographical, biological and environmental factors: it was much larger in scope, it had more plants and animals suitable for domestication, and the East-West orientation of the continent (without too many geographical barriers) made the spread and confrontation of ideas, technologies and germs more easily.

Diamond's argumentation is strong and cannot be wiped off the table. But his angle should better not be regarded as the only one: Diamond rightfully is endorsed by its critics as a geographic-ecological determinist. I would like to refer to the very interesting discussion between William H. McNeill, the nestor of World History (and my all-time favorite historian) and Diamond in the New York Review of Books (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1997/...- Upside-down) and the more balanced follow-up by McNeill's son JR McNeill (The History Teacher Vol. 34, No. 2 ,Feb., 2001), pp. 165-174).

The weakness of Diamond's approach is especially clear when you focus on the past 500 years and you wonder why specifically the Europeans, on the western side of Eurasia, took the upper hand on the eastern Asian side. Diamond's arguments on this evolution remain inadequate, especially because to me cultural factors were absolutely decisive in this period.

This fascinating discussion has developed in what became known as the "Great Divergence"-issue. About the same time as Diamond’s “Gun, Germs…” David Landes published his book The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor, with a rather provocative different approach, highlighting Western inventiveness. This triggered a whole series of corrective studies (Kenneth Pomeranz, John Gunder Frank, John Darwin, ...), and it seems that we can now go for the synthesis, even though a debate like this will never stop completely. Diamond has put on the fire with this book, and despite its flaws we ought to be grateful to him.

An intriguing book. Regardless of whether its arguments are right or wrong, the book provides profound knowledge of human history and civilizations. A vast amount of information is presented neatly, that helps a layman like me to follow and capture the data better. I, considering myself to have no interest in all kinds of history (consequence of Vietnam's education system, but not only the problem of Vietnam to be precise), astonishingly found the book absorbing and thought - provoking. In addition, the author offers encouragement to the people in their efforts to write a brighter history for their homelands, as he implies that all the people on this planet have equal potency to shape the future of their regions.

Nonetheless, the book mostly refers to the mainstream theories in human immigration and neglecting other hypothesis, which may mislead the reader into presuming that what mentioned is the only truth. Besides, it analyses human history based on geographical regions (Europe, Asia and North Africa to be Eurasia), failing to meet the reader's expectation in figuring out what made western countries dominate the world today (he did explain it at the end of the book, but it was not satisfying).

Anyway, I like the book and the author's writing style. Reading it when there was tension between China and Vietnam regarding the oil rig gambit. A thought struck me that human came a long way to reach this stage and here we are fighting and killing each other. Stop that nationalism. It's all bullshit.

The first impression that history gave me was of a never ending series of dates and occurences which needless to say is an extremely boring way to learn. The whole perspective of history changed for me when I began viewing this like I do soil. Multiple layers all held together by a common force, some of them interleaving and some totally independent with each layer telling a story of its own. At one point of time, the layer of top soil thinks of itself as invincible but with changing circumstances it paves way for the next layer. History is similar to this in many ways and such a perspective forms the wireframe for this wonderful book.

In roughly 400 pages, Jared Diamond gives a highly compressed version of the world as it is. His is not a dry recounting of occurences and how they shaped world events. Rather he delves deeper into why the world is as it is right now. Why did the Western civilizations get to influence the world more ? Why were the conquerors of lands across the world from the Eurasian landmass ? The answer to all these questions lies in the title of book : Guns, Germs and Steel. At first glance all three of these factors are entirely unrelated but on a deeper look they prove to be the most decisive factors that cut across world history. The conquerors who brought the guns overpowered the masses and they brought along with them the germs of epidemics from across the seas. Those that did not fall by the bullets, fell by the diseases and then it was a relatively easy way (full of corpses !) that the European conquerors could walk across. The author goes into details of the Spanish conquest of the Incas, The extermination of the American Indians and subduing the Aborgines of Australia as examples of these.

The power of the weapon and of the germs was not the only factor of power for the Western world. What really set apart Eurasia was its power of food production. This is where the steel part comes in. What fascinated me most were the questions that Jared Diamond poses and answers. For instance : Both agriculture and animal husbandry began in the fertile crescent - which is modern day Iraq and thereabouts but then how did the center of power shift westward ? When China had a headstart from all other parts of the world in everything from agriculture to maritime navigation why did they lag behind others in innovation ? The first human beings began life in Africa so how did the continent go far behind ? All these questions do not have simple straightforward answers but answers that are an amalgamation of economic,social,political and environmental factors. The author explains all these in depth and satisfactory detail.

The analysis, interpretations and observations in this book are not things that glance at the skin and fall away but they are facts that go down to the bone marrow of present civilizations. The research that Jared Diamond would have done for this book shows in the pages.

Undoubtedly one of the best and most informative books I have read in the last two years. Highly recommended for those who love a strong dose of cultural history, anthropology and a study of civilizations.

Having read Charles C. Mann's 1491 immediately before Guns, Germs, and Steel, I was all-too aware of the dated nature of many of Diamond's assumptions about the New World. (And therefore I would highly recommend 1491 to anyone interested in learning about the latest and greatest developments in knowledge concerning the early history of the Americas.) This seed of doubt concerning the accuracy of Diamond's assumptions about the Americas prevented me from fully appreciating what he had to say about the histories of the other continents, of which I am even less familiar.

True, the theories promoted in Diamond's book are not disrupted by the accuracy of details concerning the peoples and societies under discussion, but this raises another concern for me: the theories are so generalized, they don't suffer for the potential inaccuracy of described events. In other words, instead of starting with objective histories (and or/references to ongoing research into such histories), the book starts with a central premise and cites historical examples to support that theory.

The central theory may be summarized as follows:
* People with agriculture can produce food surpluses
* Food surpluses can support larger populations
* People located in geographical areas with animals to domesticate were able to use such animals for labor as well as meat
* Large populations with food surpluses can support artisans and bureaucrats
* Artisans and bureaucrats lead to more complex social structures and technical innovations (tools, weapons, metallurgy)
* Dense populations (especially those with domestic animals) contract and evolve immunities to germs and diseases
* Eurasian populations, due to favorable conditions for agriculture and their head-start on many other populations around the globe, acquired the "guns, germs, and steel" to conquer populations lacking the equivalent weaponry, diseases, and technology.

While the central premise makes general sense, I think it's important to acknowledge that it represents a generality, and thus offers an over-simplified view of human history. Considering the fact that this book leans so heavily on theory, I am surprised that book stores typically shelve it in History and Science sections, rather than Philosophy.

After that long disclaimer, I can say that the overall content was interesting. I especially enjoyed the section about the process of domesticating plants and animals. It had never really occurred to me that some plants and animals simply cannot be domesticated, or that the yields of some plants made the domestication of others less desirable or completely unnecessary.