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

Books | Social Science / Anthropology / General

3.9

(10.7K)

Jared Diamond

"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."—Bill Gates In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.

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More Details:

Author

Jared Diamond

Pages

528

Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

Published Date

1999-04-17

ISBN

0393069222 9780393069228

Ratings

Google: 4

Community ReviewsSee all

"I read this as a follow up to Sapiens because of Jared Diamonds pedigree in the field. This book is much more academic than I expected which makes it very thorough and well researched. Geographic and environmental factors shaped the world in ways many of us don’t think about. "

Sheldon Rapoza

"Fascinating insight of how civilizations were forms, thrived, and died "

Jessica Sierra

"I’m not a huge history-reader but this book felt exhausting to read. It felt like a very drawn out rant of backtracking and repeating and eventually I just couldn’t pay attention to the words on the page anymore. And that’s saying a lot for me because I usually down 2 books in a day. Too much old man mumbo jumbo that I couldn’t even tell where he was trying to go with his chapters. He also doesn’t explain a lot of perspectives which takes away from Yali’s question. Overall I got a migraine anytime I read more than 8 pages of this. Bill Gates said it was fascinating. I disagree"

MadiBee

"Better title: "Grass, Grass and Grass.""

Daniel Robins

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Ben Beutler

"A must-read for the modern anti-racist."

Rebecca McIntosh

"Helpful in understanding from a prehistoric perspective, the roots of current social, political, and economic inequities plaguing the current world. A dense read, but worth the time spent. "

Michelle

"Very deserving of the Pulitzer Prize and a very informative read! Just keep in mind it reads a bit more like a textbook than a great story, but you’ll learn so much that it’s truly worth the time!"