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

white supremacy

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!

An incredibly ambitious project that spans 13,000 years of human cultural evolution seeking to explain disparities in global wealth and prosperity.

Diamond starts with an introduction that sets out the thesis that technological and historical success over other populations was not caused by racial biology. He then reminds us- not so subtly- that many of those victors achieved their success at least in part by being the bigger assholes in history.

(1) Despite the title, the first factors were what plants were available for domestication (ie. high protein wheats better than corn) and what large mammals were available in the area for domestication (ie. horses were effective but zebras ineffective). The domesticated animals also helped with the plowing farmland. The migration of these plants and animals depended on the adaptability of those domestic plants and animals to the new area (horizontal or vertical migration). That's about the first 40% of the book.

The thesis of Guns, Germs and Steel is about the next 30% of the book but should be called Germs, Writing, Diffusion of Technology, and Huge Complex Warring Governments (haha, not as catchy):

(2) As for "germs," the people with domesticated animals caught infectious diseases from those domesticated animals and developed immunities. When they met people without these immunities they wiped them out with diseases both by accident and on purpose (again- the bigger assholes).

(3) Then Diamond talks about the development of written language, that also migrated along the domestic plant and animal routes- from groups that invented simple writing. Bureaucrats that were fed by food surpluses had time to adapt writing systems to their phonetic language. These bureaucrats also had a use for writing to manage large societies that grew from these food surpluses. While written language gave these people an advantage, Diamond reminds us that these "civilized people" didn't always defeat barbarians (example: the Hun).

(4) As for technology, it was developed on all continents and in all different types of societies. However, the diffusion of this technology (along these same trade routes of the domesticated plants and animals) helped maintain and grow technology. Isolated populations had less access to technology they could improve or have their technologies improved by others, and occasionally they lost this technology. Additionally, for the technology to get advanced quickly, a population had to be sedentary and be able to accumulate goods.

(5) Increased food production leads to increased populations which lead to large complex societies that in turn allow for job specializations, war and patriotic (read suicidal) military forces. Complex societies also develop lots of other things. There's a lot of belaboring the point in this section.

That's about it for the thesis, and though the title is a bit misleading, the thesis itself is solid.

The end of the book is a look at different regions of the world to show how these factors played out. This part feels like a rehashing and it covers too much area and history to be very helpful or memorable. I read this book twice and I didn't remember this part of it from my first reading. The areas covered are: Australia, New Guinea, China, other East Asian regions nearby, Indonesian islands, Polynesian islands, the continents of North and South America, and the entire continent of Africa. Each of these areas is compared to Europe (sometimes to the larger Eurasia area).

“伟大的著作大多着重于对细节精控的描述“，这本为诸多现历史学家著书提供篮本的名著对此话做了最好的诠释。 作者通过对地理、动植物、语言文字、工具等变化及发展的细致入微的分析，追踪人类从狩猎到农耕，从分散游牧到集居的过程，阐述了人类文明及科技的起源及成因。人类发展的根基在于生存之需求，以此延伸出食物对人类文明进展起到的致关重要的作用。人以食为天，民以食为本，当今文明科技发达的地区均得益于初始自然环境优利于食物的耕种及家禽的驯化。当人类不再单纯依赖于狩猎生存，而是有了农蓄业及存粮，人类便有了群居的条件，文明、技术、社会才有了发展的空间。先发展起来的人群拥有优于狩猎族群的工具，武器，及社会资源（如军队），当这些人群发展到一定程度，便开始了弱肉强食的扩张及掠夺。大量群居的人们在驯化动物的过程中，经历了感染细菌病毒及产生免疫能力的过程；而仍处于原始狩猎的散居人群对这些细菌病毒毫无抵抗力，当被侵时，整个族群因感染细菌而不复存在的现象屡屡发生。如此循环反复，初始因了自然环境的优势而先发展起来的部落成为了当今的发达国家和地区。 纵观历史长河，地球经历了二十多次的冰河时期，人类的发生与存在只如大海中的一滳水，沙漠中的一粒尘埃，人类与浩瀚宇宙相比微乎其微，但作为个体的人，仍是这微中之微里值得自豪与感动的一份存在。