Guns Germs And Steel Book Review

Deep Book Review - Guns, Germs, and Steel

Overview

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? This is Yali’s question. This one simple question turned into the author, Jared Diamond’s life work. Guns, Germs, and Steel is the description of the leading theory in why some civilizations rise and others fall. A question that has been debated for eternity and some claim that this book answers it. Diamond’s theory goes much more in-depth than most people could imagine, from the history of cows to the leaders of China, Guns, Germs, and Steel dives into it all.

The theory is that based on geography, certain countries will thrive and others won’t, leading

In my opinion, his first book that left a mark on the world was Agriculture: The Worst Mistake In the History of The Human Race. After hearing the thesis of this book, I know better understand some of his reasoning in Guns, Germs, and Steel. He first claims that agriculture brought more malnutrition and disease than it brought good. While is disagree with this because of the prosperity that resulted far, later on, it is an interesting concept that you can see was brought over into Guns, Germs, and Steel. For a substantial amount of time, many historians believed that Diamond had cracked the code of civilization. They all thought that he had finally discovered why some civilizations rise and others fall. This impacted the way many saw history. They saw it from more a point of view focused on resources rather than great people.

While Diamond’s book gives a great insight into this concept, it doesn’t come without its plot holes. It only answers why some parts of the world are less fortunate than others, but Guatemala and Venezuela are in very similar climates with similar access to an ocean, yet people in Venezuela are starving to death, they are eating their own pets, eating bark off of trees. On the other hand, Guatemala may not be a world superpower, but it is actually a business central, there are many successful companies being run, people have colleges to choose from, restaurants

I feel that I now have a greater understanding of how the world works and how civilizations function. Using this knowledge, I can apply it to smaller groups rather than the whole world. It can help you understand people on the micro level and people on the macro level. Overall, this book was a great read and I am glad I chose it as my deep book. Without it, I wouldn’t feel as strongly about my history knowledge or theory. At first, I was reading it because I thought it was more related to the biology quest, but it turned out to be more about the history of the world than ecology. Guns, Germs, and Steel has changed me and the world through its groundbreaking ideas and provocative theories. It has a great way of combine logic with new ideas to make them seem both logical, but new and different. To clarify, this is not a book about ecology, nor is it a book about specific historical events based on dates and fact. It is more than that, its a combination of research and great thinking that resulted in a book filled with amazing information on the humans and the world function and become prosperous. If you are interested in learning how civilizations rise and fall, and if you are willing to think deeply about theory and history, then Guns, Germs, and Steel is the book for