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Guns, Germs, and Steel : : the Fates of Human Societies

Diamond, Jared M. Book - 1997 Adult Book / Nonfiction / Social Science / General / Diamond, Jared M None on shelf No requests on this item Community Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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"A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years."--Paperback edition.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Fascinating submitted by ashflowtuff on August 18, 2011, 9:04am This book is really interesting. It is long and takes some focus to get through it all, but it is not too dense and stays compelling to the end.

Why did societies develop where they did submitted by wendylv on August 31, 2012, 7:31pm Why did human civilization progress earlier in Europe and Asia than it did in Africa and the Americas? Jared Diamond's thesis is that it had everything to do with geography. This is a fascinating book that examines the resources and climate available in each region and how that effected the development of societies. Highly recommended!!!

gives a new way to view history submitted by hathaway1066 on July 18, 2014, 3:38pm I found this book actually quite exciting. To see the argument that Diamond makes for different areas of the world having different climates and different naturally occurring plants and animals, and different degrees of access to other areas and those areas' native plants and animals gives a pretty powerful 'reset' to any ideas about one culture or another having a 'better' set of values or some such thing.

It'd be interesting to have a round table discussion that included Diamond and Malcolm Gladwell.

Diamond can get a bit long-winded, but that's due to solidly and fully exploring a topic, not for any frivolous or self-serving purpose.

Also, having seen him in the National Geographic documentary adaptation of his books, I'm even more of a fan. There's a scene when he visits a hospital in Africa and loses it--starts to cry in a genuine, surprising way due to seeing the many AIDS-affected kids and others--that made him forever a different 'voice' in my head as I read his books.

Overrated and dubious causation submitted by emaelshaikh on August 18, 2022, 4:54pm Fake anthropologist writes sweeping story - but there are many plot holes

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PUBLISHED
New York : W.W. Norton, c1997.
Year Published: 1997
Description: 480 p., 32 p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Language: English
Format: Book

READING LEVEL
Lexile: 1440

ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
0393317552 :
0099302780
0393038912 :

SUBJECTS
Social evolution.
Civilization -- History.
Ethnology.
Human beings -- Effect of environment on.
Culture diffusion.