archaeology

In this treatise Jared Diamond tackles no lesser a question than how Eurasian civilizations outstripped the rest of the world in technological development, allowing them to achieve preeminence on the world stage. Everyone knows that the West employed guns, germs, and steel to annex the Americas, Africa, and the Far East, but this book tries to explain why these advantages arose in Eurasia first. Diamond traces each of these advantages to one common source: the origins of agriculture first in Mesopotamia and China, not in Mexico or the Sahara or Australia. He attributes Eurasia's head start to more easily domesticated flora and fauna, a lengthy east-west access allowing the rapid diffusion of civilization, and the absence of significant geological barriers to stop this spread.

Needless to say, this two sentence summary doesn't do justice to Diamond's argument. His conclusions have the ring of truth, such as his assertion that the success of Western civilization has nothing to do with race and everything to do with an environment conducive to the growth of civilization. However, Diamond's authoritative tone throughout the book belies the ultimately circumstantial nature of his evidence. In addition, he made his essay less formidable at the cost of omitting entirely citations and footnotes documenting the evidence he does present. The only references he offers are in his appendix of suggested readings for each chapter.

Better late than never, in the epilogue Diamond instills confidence in his rigor as a scientist by discussing the difficulties with his methodology. At the same time, he credibly argues for the applicability of science to history. The epilogue also briefly treats an important topic for Diamond's theory: why China failed to maintain the technological superiority it held over Europe until at least the sixteenth century.

This review has been mostly critical, but only because this book is essential reading for anyone attempting to understand human history at this scale. Diamond's characterization of history cannot be proved correct by science, but we can ill afford to ignore it. This seminal work provides a coherent explanation for perhaps the broadest and most important trend in human history, and for that Diamond deserves credit and merits your attention.

This book tries to explain why the world has come to be dominated by western cultures coming out of Europe. Thankfullly, the reason is not due to racial or genetic sueriority, as some experts have claimed in the past. In fact, according to Diamond, the reason beginins in the prehistory of humans. The most important factors are the physical environment and the availability of easily domesticated plants and animals. Also, Eurasian cultures benefited from an East-West axis, which promoted the spread of agriculture and crops, while other continents suffered from a North-South axis which retarded the spread of crops. Those cultures which had access to these crops and a good environment to grow them in could increase their food production and population which in turn led to the development of government, writing, and technology.

Jared Diamond's background as an evolutionary biologist helps him to see the big picture. He's able to back away from the small details of history which often mislead other researchers. I'm particularly interested in his idea that opportunity, not race or culture, was the prime derterminant in the rise of western culture. My only complaint is that at times it seems that Diamond is repeating himself. Perhaps if the editing had been a little tighter, he could have cut this book by about 25 to 30 pages. Anyway, it's just a small complaint. Overall this is an excellent book with some great ideas.

I read this book purely for pleasure, unlike a lot of people I know who have read it for class or as part of an academic exercise. I simply like to pick a book that will challenge me in between fiction books. This book did not disappoint.

This is a rare work in that it can appeal to academics and pleasure readers. The knowledge and research behind the concepts in the book are complex and detailed, but Diamond does such an excellent job of explaining things, that you can easily sometimes forget the vast amount of information that he had to assimilate in order to put forth this hypothesis.

There are also two main points from the book that I took. One is the merely academic and scientific data that you learn from the book. I do not have a science, anthropologic, or linguistic background, so I learned a great deal from this book. But secondly, there is a very clear goal of this book to discount the foundations of racism. This is a lesson that every reader from this book can take with them and actually use in real life. I was struck at how this book can have such a dual purpose, and this makes it truly unique in my opinion.

Sure, there are vast generalizations that are made in a work such as this, just as there are in any history book, but this book has excellent points, is well researched, and makes solid arguments. I would definitely read another book by Jared Diamond and will definitely not forget the lessons I learned in this book.