Guns, Germs, And Steel Review Essay

Jared Diamond discusses the reasons why geographical and environmental factors lead to a more rapid progression of certain civilizations throughout history. The book Guns, Germs and Steel portrays an argument that due to some societies’ access to an area witch contains sufficient amounts of wildlife and climates that are easily inhabitable, these societies developed into more advanced ways of living much easier and also earlier than societies who lacked these geographical attributes. These beneficial geographical attributes promoted the growth of technological improvements in weapons, religion, and farming.

Throughout Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond explains the importance of geography in the ways ancient civilizations grew and spread and how some areas were more advanced than others. He began his research when he was asked a question by a Papua New Guinea residence, Yali. Yali had asked Diamond “[w]hy you white man have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little?” At that point Diamond had no answer and he was curious to find out why Eurasia had a head start in civilizing people meanwhile the other continents were behind. As a result, several differences were made between countries that did not have the same resources as those who were advanced. Some of the developing countries were poor and they had to rely on whatever was given to them through nature. When Diamond went to Papua New Guinea, he discovered that the residences of the island had the same routine as those in the ancient civilizations of Eurasia. They would often hunt for animals and used stone weapons instead of metal.

Differences in axis orientation affected the diffusion of both food production and inventions by altering the rate that crops and livestock spread. The major axis of the Americas is north-south, while the major axis of Eurasia is east-west. According to Diamond, a continent with a long east-west axis has an advantage over a continent with a long north-south axis. A crop that has developed in one place can spread east to west rather easily, but it would have difficulty spreading north to south because some areas are more ecologically suitable for the origins of food production.

The “Factors Underlying the Broadcast Pattern of History” chart shows the spreading and domesticating of plants and animals and the pros and cons of it on civilization. I agree with the author that when you have domesticated animals in the civilization food storage and surpluses; large dense, sedentary, stratified societies with political

A: The chart in this chapter is explaining the factors that allow some people to overcome others. For example, the factor of having domesticated animals and plants allowed epidemics and diseases. However, at the same time domestic animals and plants provided sustainable food. I agree with the author’s conclusion and the chart because it is true that something good and beneficial may also cause harm. On the note of having domesticated animals and plants, to many it gave them an advantage. It allowed, like I said before, sustainable food. That food source enabled many to be fed and it led to tows being built. With that food supply, it also led to army being built to protect that food supply and

“In some cases the hunter gatherers adopted the neighboring system of food production…” (Page 108)

In the video “Guns, Germs and Steel: Episode 3.” The overall summary of the episode is how Europe dominated Africa, how they fought through diseases and land wars with local tribes. During this adventure major diseases spread across Africa, affecting Europeans and Africans, causing thousands to die. The main two diseases were smallpox and Malaria, for example in the video it stated that, “It was believed Smallpox originated in the tropical region of Africa, Africans were certainly similar with the disease, they had even developed methods of immunity for life.” This was the advantage they had over the europeans, they were able to protect themselves from Smallpox; avoiding such a dramatic incline their population. Not only did they develop immunization to Smallpox, they tried to fight off Malaria. For example in the video it says, “Native Africans had also developed antibodies against one of the most virulent diseases on the earth, Malaria.” This was because they settled and live in high or dry locations, away from wet and humid areas, which is where mosquitos are generally found, hence why thousands of Europeans died to this disease due to living by rivers and swamps. However, Malaria isn’t the most common disease in Africa now, the most common disease is “Pneumonia and Other Lower Respiratory Tract Infections….Pneumonia alone is responsible for 90% of all lower respiratory tract infections and is one of the most deadly diseases in

In his work, “Guns, Germs, and Steel” (W. W. Norton, New York, NY, 1997) Jared Diamond attempts to explain why human history has carried out the way it has, he often refers to accounts from history to support his argument. Accounts that will be deemed adequate will discuss specific groups of people, at a specified period of time. Diamond suggests that guns, germs, and steel are three contributing factors for why the world is in its current state. It is not difficult to recognize while reading, that the book spends a large amount of time talking about germs and much less text discussing guns and steel. In “Guns, Germs, and Steel” Diamond does adequately account for the historical development of guns and steel, in the way he accounts for the role of germs in the history of human societies. It is no debate that germs played a massive role in many important events in history, but guns came late, were not very effective at first, and steel production was most important militarily.

The establishment of food production proved to be more fulfilling than hunting and gathering since it reduced the risk of starvation. Despite being provided with some of the advantages that came with transitioning to agriculture, many regions remained as hunter-gatherers. While some areas, such as the Fertile Crescent and Eurasia, had many advantageous plants and animals that could be domesticated, other areas, New Guinea, Eastern United States, and Mesoamerica, possessed limited availability. Some areas are simply not suited to agriculture of any kind, while others may support some crops that are suitable for domestication but not others. Likewise, while there were big animals living in several regions, those species were not suitable for domestication since they did not follow the six requirements, which involved being sufficiently obedient, humble to humans, cheap to feed, able to breed well in captivity, immune to diseases, able to grow rapidly (Diamond 1999, 169). On the other hand, in some areas, food production developed independently. However, only a few places developed food production without any outside influence, which included the Fertile Crescent in western Eurasia, China, the eastern United States, Mesoamerica, and New Guinea. In the Andes and Amazonians, and three areas of Africa, food production was also probably an independent development, but there are

In the book Guns, Germs and Steel Jared Diamond who is a biophysics scientist and a psychologist, set out on a journey to find out the reason behind great achievements and conquest of the Europeans. What is the secret of success of Europeans? His hypothesis was very original and at first looked very simple, it was guns, germs and steel. The journey of Diamond took over 30 years and helped him answer the main questions of human history and what is it that separates humans today from "rich and poor" and from "haves and have not’s." To do this he had to go back when everyone was equal.

When reading the title of Jared Diamond’s, “Guns, Germs, and Steels,” the readers must initially think how do these three connect? After starting the first few chapters they will realize that Diamond is referring to the proximate and ultimate factors in that lead to the advancement of society. When Diamond talks about proximate and ultimate factors, he is explaining the cause of European dominance in the world. The proximate factors are the one that directly led to the European dominance and the ultimate factors are the ones that let to proximate factors. I believe that this book is referring to the Homo sapiens revolutionizing through the years, through the Neolithic Revolution through agriculture and industrialization.

Immediately after reading the prologue of guns, germs, and steel I was able to comprehend the intended message that the author created. As the book went from chapter to chapter it was understandable that the author strongly believed that one society can excel farther than another based on that society's geography. The author used charts and diagrams to introduce different beliefs and concepts to explain his hypothesis. Some major themes from the beginning to the end of the book that contributed to the author’s belief was that geography worked as a disadvantage for some societies causing unuseful agriculture, failed societies caused by geography led to the unsuccessful development of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and communities with lots

Going from gatherer to farming occurred gradually, the decision was made by the availability of game and gatherables, and the pressures of population to how much is going to be grown

Guns, germs, and Steel is written from a materialist approach to describe the history of societies and explain why some societies are more advanced than others. Some of the main points he blames this issue on include the geography surrounding the society, their food resources, the people’s immunity to germs, their use of steel, and training animals to be domesticated. I would give this book a rating of 3 stars due to the fact that it was informational but focused too much on specific materials rather than other historical perspectives. The book was written in a more professional but narrative format that may not appeal to all readers in terms of entertainment value. I personally didn’t find the book very enticing but did learn as far as resources

In 1920 American women were allowed to vote. While in Papa New Guinea people were trying to find a more efficient way of farming. This shows just how unequal our world is. So what causes inequality? The cause of inequality is due to geography. Farming and domesticated animals is where the problem started. After domesticated animals, came steel leading to the exposure of germs. For a civilization to succeed it needs a steady source of crops, domesticated animals, production of steel, and early exposure to germs.