Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Society, Book Review Example

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Society is a historical book written by Jared Diamond in which the author tries to explain why it was particularly Eurasian civilization that managed not only to survive in the last 13,000 years, but also made it possible to conquer and seize other civilizations. Most notably the author looks for environmental and geographical explanations to Eurasian domination rather then for genetic and intellectual ones. Diamond’s thesis: Eurasian political and military advantage was due to the early rise of food production, which in its turn became possible because of favorable climatic, geographical and environmental conditions that existed on the continent. The author’s argument can be summed up by his own statement: “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves” (25).

The book consists of five sections each of which is oriented towards an explanation of certain stages in human development with a discussion of causes that led to particular types of evolution, maturation and ontogenesis. Thus the first section “From Eden to Cajamarca” studies the origin and spread of humankind as a whole. But the main accent is made on the research of how divergent environmental factors affect people of the same genetic origin based on an example of Polynesians who dissipated through a number of islands in the Pacific Ocean with different climatic and geographical conditions between 1200 BC and 500 AD. The result of this “natural experiment in history” was that people of the same genetic background and with the same set of already obtained elements of living had created absolutely different societies in terms of their social, political, economical and cultural development.

The second section – “The Rise and Spread of Food Production” – discusses the reasons for some peoples to acquire food production through herding and farming and for others to forever stay on the level of hunters-gatherers. At this point the author once again communicates his main idea that Eurasian continent had the best environmental preconditions for the rise of indigenous agriculture.

In the third section of the book Diamond tries to logically explain how the existence of food production led to the development of centralized government, advanced technology, and unassailable germs. Therefore, in the section “From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel” the author states his main point of the entire book that it was the possibility for an origin and a potent development of agriculture on the continent that gave Eurasians the potential for a rapid evolution and secured their domination over other civilizations.

In the next section – “Around the World in Five Chapters” – the author chooses five particular geographical areas around the world to provide a practical application of theoretical principles that were discussed in the preceding three sections of the book. Those areas include: Australia and New Guinea and a comparison between these two regions, which had once been a single continent, is made; China and the author traces back the unification and historical isolation of the country; Southeast Asian region on an example of which Diamond shows the dependency of culture upon environment; American continents, the European colonization of which became possible due to germs, guns, and steel; African continent and impossibility of its people to develop food production because of the poor environmental conditions.

And the last section of the book is an epilogue which sums up Jared Diamond’s arguments and tries to further explain why it was particularly Europe that took the lead over other regions (previously more advantaged).

In overall, I find Diamond’s argument to be not just interesting, bus also quite persuasive and logical, even though certain deficiencies and gaps can be found in the text of the book. It seems to me that for a large number of people Diamond’s arguing concepts may be somewhat misleading as it may seem that the author’s major statement is that of attributing Eurasian domination solely to factors of biogeography. However, the reason for the author to stick in his explanations to the science of biogeography, rather then to any other one, is based on the desire to find an ultimate cause in the prehistory of the humankind that contributed to the supremacy of Eurasians. I think that the author makes his point quite clearly as he provides a vast number of examples and a set of highly analyzed data, especially in terms of biological resources that were available to Eurasians and thus helped them to evolve more rapidly. Furthermore, Diamond provides a reader with thorough account on various species of plants and animals suitable for domestication and their availability throughout the world.

There are several major points about the book that seem a bit irritating and unnecessary. The first one is constant repetitions of information that the author applies in order to present his argument from various angles and points of view. Another one is the final impression that Guns, Germs and Steel gives and it is that the Eurasians (and especially Europeans) were just lucky enough to be in the right place and time and that environmental factors did all the ‘dirty job’ for them. I think that such a conclusion crosses out all the history of European individuals’ struggle for progress and enlightenment. The third deficiency is inability of the author to explain logically and scientifically why of all the Eurasian peoples it were particularly Europeans who eventually had achieved the greatest technological advance which provided them with an influence over the rest of the world. And the last one is that the author seems to be highly favorable of New Guineans and totally unfavorable of Europeans. Furthermore, such an approach leads to a number of subjunctive observations and statements. For instance, on one hand Diamond believes that New Guineans intelligence is heritable, but on the other hand he absolutely rejects the same possibility regarding Europeans.

While Jared Diamond presents quite a serious general idea and explanation to the development of the history of the world, still it seems to me that the intended audience wasn’t that of academic historians and scientists, but rather that of ordinary people who are just interested in popular science and history. If otherwise then the author had failed to achieve his goal. The basis for such a conclusion is the book’s lack of an academic style as the author presents his research through a mean of fiction-like fable. There is a little number of references and footnotes throughout the book which makes it possible to conclude that the author didn’t think his readers will attempt to check the provided data. Thus Guns, Germs, and Steel can be assessed as a book written for laymen or representatives of a ‘pop culture’ who, while being interested in the subject of evolution and historical development of the humankind, doesn’t posses sufficient academic background to tell whether Diamond’s observations and statements are subjective or scientific ones and therefore is unable to see the difference between author’s assumptions and scientifically-proven characteristics.

I think that the sources used by Jared Diamond to write his book can be divided into two major parts. The first one is results and conclusions of the author’s own scientific researches and investigations. In particular, Diamond makes a lot of allusions to his studies conducted in New Guinea and he also bases his main arguments on the observations gathered there. And the second part of materials used by Diamond as sources of information can be examined through an appendix where a list of further readings is provided. While it can be concluded that the author did a tremendous preparatory work in order to write Guns, Germs, and Steel, nevertheless it can be noted that a lot of referred sources are that written for a general public rather then for specialists in various scientific fields. For instance, some of the provided references include: The History and Geography of Human Genes by Cavalli-Sforza, Menozzi, and Piazza; The Illustrated History of Human Kind edited by Burenhult; and the Evolution and the Diversity of Life by Mayr. Therefore, it seems to me that sources used by Diamond contributed a lot to the style of his own book and influenced it from a viewpoint of being a non-academic one.

So my overall conclusion is that while Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: Fates of Human Societies provides a reader with sufficient research and explanation from the viewpoint of biogeography, it is rather imperfect from a standpoint of historical investigation. Furthermore, it seems to me that the book offers a thorough account on the prehistoric causes that led to the domination of Eurasia, but it ignores the facts that contributed to further European supremacy starting from 1500 AD. More importantly, the author totally ignores the possibility of intellectual and cultural dominance which makes his argument rather one-sided. Thus a conclusion may be drawn that Diamond’s work in interesting as a kind of non-academic reading, but a lot of statements made by the author should be re-checked and require further and more detailed study.

Works Cited

Diamond, Jared M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Society. 1^st ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.