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

Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, a classic of our time, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond dismantles racist theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for its broadest patterns.

The story begins 13,000 years ago, when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Around that time, the developmental paths of human societies on different continents began to diverge greatly. Early domestication of wild plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and other areas gave peoples of those regions a head start at a new way of life. But the localized origins of farming and herding proved to be only part of the explanation for their differing fates. The unequal rates at which food production spread from those initial centers were influenced by other features of climate and geography, including the disparate sizes, locations, and even shapes of the continents. Only societies that moved away from the hunter-gatherer stage went on to develop writing, technology, government, and organized religions as well as deadly germs and potent weapons of war. It was those societies, adventuring on sea and land, that invaded others, decimating native inhabitants through slaughter and the spread of disease.

A major landmark in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way in which the modern world, and its inequalities, came to be.

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Published Mar 7, 2017

528 pages

Average rating: 7.14

78 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

TaotallyJohn
Sep 25, 2025
6/10 stars
Ah yes, the west is the best because nature made it so. Theories are fine and forever readers to think more broadly about humanity and the lived environment but “broadly” is pretty key. The ideas are facile and sweeping.
Rick
Feb 26, 2025
9/10 stars
One of the most interesting books I've ever read.
enderverse
Dec 05, 2024
5/10 stars
white supremacy
Bodine
Sep 19, 2024
8/10 stars
The overall book is a highly fascinating and inquisitive look into human history which encompasses everything from technology to human behavior. It’s intriguing to find so many patterns in human nature while also noting the vast differences between societies. I chose to rate this one an 8 out of 10. Short two points due to the readability. Overall, I definitely recommend this book!
Janet H
Aug 31, 2023
An incredibly ambitious project that spans 13,000 years of human cultural evolution seeking to explain disparities in global wealth and prosperity.

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