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Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Written by Jared Diamond

Narrated by Grover Gardner

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

Winner of the Pulitzer PrizeIn this groundbreaking work, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns. It is a story that spans 13,000 years of human history, beginning when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Guns, Germs, and Steel is a world history that really is a history of all the world's peoples, a unified narrative of human life.

Editor's Note

Eloquent history…

This elegant and eloquent history of humanity examines not just how human society developed, but why it developed differently in different cultures. A must–read for the history buff and the layperson alike.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 11, 2001
ISBN9781598873481
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Author

Jared Diamond

JARED DIAMOND has been the national baseball writer for the Wall Street Journal since 2017. Prior to that, he spent a season as the Journal’s Yankees beat writer and three seasons as their Mets beat writer. In his current role, he leads the newspaper’s baseball coverage. This is his first book.  

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Reviews for Guns, Germs and Steel

Rating: 4.25625 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    ABRIDGED VERSION

    I picked this up to follow along with the book, but sadly a significant number of chapters at the end of the book are missing.

    The narration is clear and well delivered, but for the full book I would suggest looking elsewhere.

    2 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    one of 3 top all tie science books

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a well thought out book with seemingly solid backed science. It’s just a very dry and drawn out way to learn how humans of all races and backgrounds share the same spectrum of intelligence. The only difference is how the geography of certain continents fostered human developments in agricultural, diseases, and industry faster than others. I’d recommend reading a summary of the book instead.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The aim of this book (and I am oversimplifying) is to explain why western countries became the dominant force in the last couple of centuries. Specifically, he is rejecting social Darwinist and racist explanations for why it has been mostly European Caucasian societies that have come to power, to find an explanation based on geography and evolution. Diamond is successful in this explanation, and takes the reader some of the most interesting developments in human history--the rise of agriculture and animal domestication, the invention of writing, and other important technologies, and migration and trade patterns. While the book is packed with interesting information, it is however, rather repetitive, and probably cites more examples than it needs to.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was highly recommended to me by a former political science professor of mine about a year ago. I picked it up last week, and though reading it appears to be an intimidating endeavor it turned out to be quite interesting and manageable to get through. This Pulitzer Prize winner attempts to cover massive ground in under 500 pages, and while it would seem that small amount of space would sell short the fates of human societies, Diamond does a stellar job of incorporating all the aspects required of this topic into a relatable masterpiece.Part of what makes Guns, Germs, and Steel so effortless to read is its repetitiveness, which also tends to be one of its major critiques. I think that the breadth of this book made repetition not just acceptable, but useful. The reader could easily lose track of what was being discussed if the focus was not continuously being brought back to the main ideas Diamond pursued. The big question this book tries to answer is why some societies advanced and prospered while numerous others did not. In short, it is a brief history of how human societies proceeded to their present state.Diamond’s hypothesis is that there are many different reasons for how societies came to be the way they are today, but that racial differences is not among them. The four factors that he claims contributed most to the success or failure of societies are the differences in wild plant and animal life on the continents, the orientation of the continents’ major axis, the rate of diffusion between continents, and the total area and population size of each of the continents. For instance, Eurasia had 13 of the 14 domesticatable animal species in the world, has a major axis orientation of west-east rather than north-south, was least impeded by geographic barriers to spread information, and has the largest land mass and population size of any of the continents. This book documents how each of these factors affected the populations of each continent in the development of human societies.One of the major sections of Guns, Germs, and Steel focuses on food production and dissemination, which I found particularly interesting. Diamond explains that having domesticatable animal and plant species is essential to progress a human society. The comfort of our current culture is a result of our ancestors transitioning from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to sedentary farmers. Stockpiling food, branching into handicrafts, creating a written language, and building up immunities to germs transmitted by livestock would never have been possible if humans had not begun to cultivate the land. As this book jaunts on, the layers from which society is constructed are clearly presented and reiterated, so that by the end you will have no trouble explaining why the hundreds of thousands of Aztecs were conquered by the few hundred Spaniards, or why the Australians never independently developed agriculture. As Diamond notes and demonstrates, history is indeed like an onion.While an impressive amount of information is covered in this work, I got the sense that a lot was being left unsaid. Not until the epilogue does Diamond begin to point out historical instances that are more than just anomalies in his theory. For example, China had advantages in every area Diamond suggests is important to advancing society, and yet it was Europe, not China, that colonized the Americas. He asserts this to China being so unified that the decision of a single person could impede the progress of the entire nation. (Interestingly, this is what led to China abandoning everything from mechanical clocks to the entire school system at one point!) Europe, on the other hand, had many competing rulers and opinions which helped it advance ahead of China. This makes sense, but seems to be in conflict with Diamond’s hypothesis, which is that geography and resources are what gave cultures advantages, not the humans within the cultures. This is not a racist explanation, as Diamond was trying to avoid, since there has probably been someone in every society who thought it would be best to do away with seafaring ships at one time or another. It just happened that that person was in a position of power in China at an unfortunate time.Diamond does a fantastic job of working through the history of human societies on every continent and explaining why they are the way they are today. He employs the knowledge of many disciplines, including linguistics, geography, biology and agronomy, to name a few. Though the scientific method may not have been properly used here, as Diamond presents only information that supports his hypothesis, the premise and conclusion are logical and well presented. Guns, Germs, and Steel is a definite asset to anyone’s bookshelf.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a weighty book, ya'll. Jared Diamond's book had been on my list for ages because once upon a time it had been on one of my recommended reading lists for an undergraduate Anthropology class (I majored in that field). I didn't have the time to read it then (it is 425 pages after all) but the topic still intrigued me. Much like the book above I was interested in the subject matter and found no fault with the writing style (other than it being more like a textbook than casual, recreational reading) but it was so dense that I didn't always feel compelled to pick it up in a spare moment. (I also kept falling asleep for some reason.) Progress: I made it to page 290 before I had to concede defeat (and ship it to the next person waiting to read it).

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The author hypothesizes that the reason for the success of Western civilization in colonizing so much of the world is pure chance, a combination of guns, pathogenic bacteria, and steel. Also, the location of these societies played a large role in their success. It's an interesting thesis, and I suspect at least partially right, though much of his evidence can be interpreted more than one way. Also, some recent findings in molecular biology may have require some alteration of his ideas. Certainly a book people should read.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The author gives a well researched factual account of how the European continent managed to conquer Africa and North America. The luck of beneficial geographic placement and easily domesticated species gave them the greater competitive edge - and explains so much about how the world was explored and subsequently colonized. Very interesting book - National Geographic did a dvd companion piece that was good also.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An interesting and intriguing look at different societies and what makes one gain advantage over the other. Diamond presents his evidence fluidly, if but a bit on the technical side, but the book is an astounding achievement in his field and the findings are very conclusive and relevant to our understanding of history. I was especially impressed by his wealth of information, sources, and acuity in determining his observations. For non-fiction lovers, this is not one to be missed.3.75.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Diamond takes an evolutionary approach to the advancement of conquering cultures through the rapid advancement of crop cultivation, domestic animals, and survival of the fittest through disease. Unfortunately, it is in desperate need of an editor. Hundreds of pages should have been cut or redesigned. The last three chapters alone could have been cut to just a few pages. When Guns was first published it was considered quite revolutionary; however, current scholarship has challenged it with a bite.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Interesting but not 100% convincing. I want to know more about technological regression!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Widely read and popular, Guns, germs and steel. The fates of human societies has a simple and compelling thesis: Geography lies at the basis of the success of civilizations. The long horizontal axis spanning the Eurasian continent resulted in successful transmission of cultural and agricultural discoveries, while the vertical axes of the American and African continents were less conducive to such promotion. Thus, the civilizations on the Eurasian continent were ultimately more successful than civilizations of other continents.Guns, germs and steel. The fates of human societies includes descriptions of all continents and major civilizations, with some more prominence for places the author knows better from previous work. The fact that the book first appeared in 1997, 1999 does not seem to be of major impact. Although in the meantime significant progress has been made in describing human ancestry, new findings do not seem to undermine or challenge Diamond's thesis on main points.Guns, germs and steel. The fates of human societies does take a rather reductionist stance, and the main arguments in the conquest of Latin America seem to be a bit forced, downplaying simple luck. Psychological traits of the conquerers, such as agression, deceit and drive to conquer are not juxtaposed to the characteristics of other peoples in the world.Still, Guns, germs and steel. The fates of human societies remains a very interesting book to read.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have had this book staring me down from my shelves for 10+ years. I knew I ought to read the darn thing, but it seemed like more effort than I ever had the energy to expend. Recently though, my very smart friend (hi Robert!) insisted I must read it, and collapsing in the face of peer pressure I did so. He was right. This cohesive, scrupulously supported theory of the variant development of human societies (based more in geography and biology than anthropology) is fascinating, compelling, eye opening, and shockingly relevant to everyday life in these strange times. I put the book right back on my shelf. I almost never re-read, but this I need to revisit soon.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Jared Diamond has pulled off a startling amalgamation of Bill Bryson's 'Short History of Nearly Everything' and Jacob Bronowski's 'The Ascent of Man'. He writes with great clarity and illuminates a number of turning points while seeking to explain why some societies around the world achieved ascendancy over others. Diamond's principal hypothesis is that until around 11,000 BC all of the fledgling societies scattered around the globe were on a roughly equal footing, struggling to get by as hunter-gatherers. From that time onwards, different groups started to move towards a more structured mode of agriculture featuring the domestication of livestock and the ability to regulate arable crops. Throughout the book he stops to ask why it was that the European nations colonised Afria, Asia and the Americas, rather than the other way around. Why were those European states able to establish their supremacy?The dreadful impact of diseases prevalent among Europeans upon the new societies that they encountered throughout the New World and Australasia is well documented. Diamond asserts that some of that contagion was initially contracted from the livestock that formed the basis of their sustaining agriculture. Diamond explores these issues with a mixture of history, archaeology and anthropology, drawing evidence from all around the world. These are not areas that I know much, if anything, about, and I found Diamond's book completely engrossing. I might question some of his conclusions, but they are all soundly constructed, and liable to provoke lively debate.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Dense, academic, slow and possessing an onslaught of illustrative examples. Not the most entertaining read, and I probably retained very little. Worthy of a Pulitzer? Absolutely.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Enjoyed the book a lot. Was extremely detailed and really did a good job at touching on all parts of the planet and its differing societies. I started having trouble about two-thirds through the book since I started finding it repetitive and I honestly can only read about plant domestication for so long. I think the book would have been more effective having been shortened by a hundred pages or so. Overall still very good and worthwhile. I would be happy to read another of the author's books in the future.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Jared Diamond’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel on the history of humanity is nothing short of breathtaking. He manages to condense the 15,000-year saga of human history into the most detailed examination of how certain civilizations became the leaders of today’s world. His theories succeed in eschewing the odious and racist postulation that so-called “white” cultures are better, stronger, and smarter than their “black” counterparts. Diamond successfully argues that geography and animal biology are at the heart of the matter. The area where the most domesticable animals and plants were located (the Fertile Crescent, among others) got a head start on all other civilizations, and thus, created societies, languages, weapons, and immunities that helped them to engulf others. An utterly fascinating read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There's lots of good information and insight in this book, but the author's dense style makes it heavy going.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Excellent. I am sorry I did not read it earlier. Jared Diamond spoke at my institution some years back but his name meant nothing to me at the time. I recently finished 1491 and Diamond's book is a great complement to that one.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Phenomenal.
    Definitely a dry book but not hard to get into it.
    It points out incredible ideas and observations about humans that should be much more mainstream.
    This book answers why Europeans and Asians had so much before globalization began a few centuries ago and why Native Americans and Africans were perceived to be so far behind even when evidence shows no difference in human intelligence or capability.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a thought-provoking, deeply interesting, controversial book investigating the reasons behind the bafflingly different rate of development of human societies in different parts of the world.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very informative and insightful. Needs a lot of focus to absorb the info!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Thank you for communicating relations between people and technology.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a very insightful book that provided plausible theories that account for things I had wondered myself about human societies. I had always wondered why it was Europeans who created empires around the globe as opposed to other cultures. Also, I was aware that there were no beasts of burden in North America and that played a role in hindering technological advancement. But the author expounded on this and other factors in a way that painted a pretty clear picture on the discrepancies that separate geographically distinct societies around the world.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Very interesting topic and a great work to open your eyes to the potential factors in human evolution.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I don’t know if it qualifies as a classic yet but I’m sure at some point it will. Insightful and logical explanation
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fascinating and captivating read. I would have read it a lot faster if not for selecting it as my 'exercise reading matter', meaning it only got attention in short bursts!

    Jared takes on the question of why some parts of the world kept to dominate others, and not vice versa, from a historically scientific standpoint, looking at food production and the effect it has on just about everything else - like the innovations of technology, society, politics and so forth. Why did Eurasia serve as a better platform for so many factors than the Americas, Africa or Australia?

    I found myself re-reading sections sometimes because of the revelations therein, or mulling over the concepts at length long after I'd inserted my bookmark and put the book down. Jared asks so many questions I have never considered before, and yet in his consideration of them have found myself wishing I'd applied myself more in my own studies!

    Something as simple as why did Chinese political unity serve as a poorer platform for dominance than the fractured political mishmash of Europe, despite the Chinese people have piles of technologies and societal advances so long before those of West Eurasia? (well, I say simple, which it isn't... but after reading it, it seems like such a simple explanation).

    Loved reading this - grappling with the impact of wild plants and potentially domesticated animals on the progress of world. Considering the roles of isolation, geographic orientation, language, and so many other factors. My eyes have been really opened, and I appreciate it!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Jarod Diamond examines the question of why are some societies more successful than others. Ultimately, why was it the Europeans who dominated exploration and conquest of the world? Why not China or Africa? Diamond explores the idea of "accidental conquest" based on geographic luck. This informational text is best suited for high school students because of the complexity of ideas. Diamond won the Pulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) in 1998 for this book and in 1999 and 2004, it was placed on the ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound list.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Jared Diamond brings fresh perspective and a load of archaeological evidence to one of the most perplexing questions: how did the great disparity of wealth between nations arise?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5

    Dr. Diamond. Now there’s a name begging to be assigned a character in a superhero movie. Jared Diamond might agree.

    Guns, Germs, and Steel derives from a thesis Dr. Diamond has about how some societies were able to accumulate so much “cargo” compared to other peoples. He attempts to dissuade readers from ideas that individual or cultural superiority must be the basis of explanation.

    This is a good topic but my interest in his argument fell off in proportion to the number of pages read. Not an obstacle, though. Dr. Diamond so often presented fun ideas and information that a thematic excuse to continue on wasn’t needed.

    As one example of what I found fun: why zebras did not come to serve as the African horse.“Zebras have the unpleasant habit of biting a person and not letting go. They thereby injure even more American zookeepers each year than do tigers! Zebras are also virtually impossible to lasso with a rope—even for cowboys who win rodeo championships by lassoing horses—because of their unfailing ability to watch the rope noose fly toward them and then to duck their head out of the way.”

    Pretty damn good, zebras. Born to be wild!

    ALTHOUGH, I must point out, in the movie Hatari a zebra is lassoed by the character played by John Wayne. Now, no shame being lassoed by the Duke, of course. And it’s possible the movie exercised some sleight of hand to fool us. Maybe it was a zebra-striped horse (it really does look like a zebra though). Or maybe, just maybe, the “unfailing” zebras sometimes fail when chased a long distance by a bunch of people in a truck, a technique not available to ancient Africans. Is Dr. Diamond still interested? He should discuss this.

    One annoyance was the book’s misleading title, which could better have been Germs! Germs! Germs! And Other Stuff. As a kid I didn’t like germs but I liked guns (the plastic toys) and I liked steel. The boy in me wanted to read about the stuff I’d liked. But those grim germs run rampant here, laying waste to the guns and the steel and their metaphorical counterparts.

    Nor does it help that at times Dr. Diamond will talk so much about a single subject that the reader is apt to expire before finishing. His aim is to convince and if entertainment suffers from the effort, so be it.

    The merit of the book is that the author gives well-articulated reasons in the effort to convince and he entertains often enough. Even when he fails and writes something dull or irritating, it’s easy to be forgiving because there will be something good coming up again. For example: “With the rise of chiefdoms around 7,500 years ago, people had to learn, for the first time in history, how to encounter strangers regularly without attempting to kill them.”

    Let us bow to the chiefdoms! Without them, how could road trips be the attraction they are today?