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Analysis Of Guns, Germs, And Steel By Jared Diamond

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Jared Diamond, an anthropologist, known for his popular book Guns, Germs, and Steel, originally published in 1997 and updated last in 2005. Guns, Germs, and Steel received the Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Prize (1997), the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction (1998), and many other awards throughout the years. Within roughly nineteen chapters, Jared Diamond uses his educational background in order to identify why societies are more materially successful than others. Many influential factors such as geography, germs, food production, animal domestication, and the use of advanced technology like steel Diamond claims to be the reasonable belief of why some societies are successful. Many praise Diamond for attempting such a controversial topic in Guns, …show more content…

Yali’s question was “why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?” The ultimate explanation for what cargo Yali was speaking of is the material good such as advanced technology, tools like axes, or anything type of good that the “black people” did not have (Diamond, page 1-32). In one of Diamond’s critics, Antrosio, blog, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond: Against History, on the Living Anthropologically website that criticizes that Diamond answered Yali’s question completely wrong by explaining why Europeans were more developed than others. Diamond solely believes that by “geographical accident” agriculture was the only reason Europeans were powerful and wealthy whereas others were not. Diamond did not factor in the major influences such as a centralized government, intellectual nor genetics as possible reasons for the more advanced societies (Antrosio, 2017, …show more content…

One example that Antrosio mentions, is how he answers Yali’s question by focusing on the advancements of the Europeans. With the longer availability of agriculture in the Eurasian regions, the people had a better opportunity to develop more advanced technologies. Along with the production of agriculture, the domestication of animals became a prominent resource and influential factor to the spread of diseases. Therefore, it is apparent that Diamond contradicts his article, “Worst Mistake,” with Guns, Germs, and Steel. However, Diamond could have conducted more research in relation to societies development and agriculture that influenced the shift in Guns, Germs, and Steel. Although, there is no evidence to support the possibility of more in-depth research as every story within the book always goes back to the same factors (Antrosio, 2017,

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In the book, Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond attempts to answer questions of conquest, such as why Eurasia conquered the Americas, and not the other way around. Diamond is a biologist by trade, and both impressed and disappointed the academic world with his new historian side. He believes the answer to western dominance lies in geography and the spread of guns, germs and steel. His theories had led him to be heavily critiqued by historians everywhere, including environmental historian J.R McNeil and Professor of Anthropology and Geography James Blaut. While Diamond provides solid ideas relating to the conquest of the New World, he often uses his scientistic background loosely with unclear supports forgetting other historical factors that

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In historian Jared Diamond’s book and film Guns, Germs and Steel, he attempts to explain why some parts of the world are more economically sound than others. The facts Diamond delves into extend back thousands of years. Some civilizations had what Diamond referred to as “geographic luck”, meaning that some lands were situated in an environment better suited for agriculture and other resource gathering. Other civilizations were also unable to domesticate animals that would have made farming and living on the land easier. Domesticated animals provided milk, fur, meat, as well as the ability to feed off leftover crop beds and create dung to fertilize future crops.

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Jared Diamond in his book titled Guns, Germs, and Steel tells about certain places in the world having more geographic luck than others and thus causing them to prosper. During the Civil War the North and the South were warring over state rights and slavery issues. While the industrial revolution fueled the creation of new inventions such as the steam engine, the south refused capitalize upon these new creations. When the North grew and continued to grow in its industrial strength, they began to make themselves a world power, causing the South to continue to mostly produce cotton and several other agricultural crops. The South didn’t provide many new technologies which limited there economic effect on trade and production.

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Most historians consider many factors to piece together our planet’s past. When looking at the exploration of what was named “the New World,” they often point to the success of the conquistador’s missions and attribute it to their determination, skill, and weaponry. The film “Guns, Germs, and Steel” names the real reasons why the conquistadors were so successful on their missions. The empires of Central and South America did not have access to certain animals and had not advanced as far as the Europeans did in terms of weaponry. Additionally, they had never been exposed to the diseases that many animals carry.

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