Guns, Germs, and Steel
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| Guns, Germs, and Steel | |
|---|---|
 Dust jacket cover of the first edition, featuring the painting Pizarro seizing the Inca of Peru by John Everett Millais | |
| Author(s) | Jared Diamond |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | geography, social evolution, history of civilization, ethnology, cultural diffusion |
| Publisher | W. W. Norton |
| Publication date | March 1997 (1st edition, hardcover) |
| Media type | Hardcover, Paperback, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Audio Download |
| Pages | 480 pages (1st edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-393-03891-2 (1st edition, hardcover) |
| OCLC Number | 35792200 |
| Dewey Decimal | 303.4 21 |
| LC Classification | HM206 .D48 1997 |
| Followed by | Collapse |
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is a 1997 book by Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1998, it won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book. A documentary based on the book, and produced by the National Geographic Society, was broadcast on PBS in July 2005.[1]
The book attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations (in which he includes North Africa) have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral or inherent genetic superiority.
Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example, written language or the development among Eurasians of resistance to endemic diseases), he asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures, and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes.
See also
References
- ↑ Lovgren, Stefan (2005-07-06). ""Guns, Germs and Steel": Jared Diamond on Geography as Power". National Geographic News. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/07/0706_050706_diamond.html. Retrieved 2011-11-16.
Links
- "On Societal Ascendance and Collapse: An Austrian Challenge to Jared Diamond's Explications" (PDF) by John Brätland, 2005
- "Working Paper on Jared Diamond" by Mises.org Updates, June 2005
- "Geography as Causal in Societal Ascendance: An Austrian Retrospective on Diamond" (PDF) by John Brätland, 2009
- "An Austrian Reexamination of Recent Thoughts on the Rise and Collapse of Societies" (PDF) by John Brätland, 2010
- "The Diamond Fallacy" by Gene Callahan, March 2005
- Squaring the Circle by Michael Levin, July 1998
