Details
Rent Guns, Germs and Steel
Author:
Narrator: Grover Gardner
Format: Abridged-CD, Unabridged-CD
Publisher: Penguin/Highbridge
Published: Jul 2001
Genre: History - World
Retail Price: $29.95
Discs: 5
Synopsis
Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years.
Reviews
Why didnt more advanced civilizations develop in the new world? Why wasnt there ever a panAfrica empire? Why didnt the Maori conquer the east and dominate modern culture? Diamond, in his clear way, explains through geography and anthropology, the reason the Eurasian continent has been the dominant force in human history. Its about metal and resources, large animals, hunting, and travel. Decades ago, geography played a much stronger part in American education. Sadly, Americans are almost entirely geographically ignorant now. Diamond takes the technique of using geography to analyze the overall trends of world history. It is wonderful. I think his premise that some people are considered racial inferior because they havent dominated global history is something of a straw man argument. He sets it up to topple it down. People dont actually still think like that, do they? However, poor premise aside, it is a very enjoyable read.