Biology Book Review: Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond was the first book I read when trying to understand the evolution of the human species. This piece of literature provided me with lots of key information required to understand the rise of civilization. It covers the period of time in which neolithic hunter gatherers began to adopt a lifestyle associated with settled, civilized life. Jared Diamond covers countless moments of history that can be considered monumental tuning points in the history of our species.
Jared Diamond highlights the importance of food production in humanity’s history. He argues that the ability to produce excess food and store it is the fundamental force that drove humans to adopt civilized life. From settling in farming communities to the growth of giant systems of government, food production plays a pivotal role in how our ancestors behaved. In addition to this argument, Jared explains the conditions present on the planet during the most influential moments of our development and demonstrates why certain regions of the world were better prepared to develop cities.
As you can imagine, this book addresses three main determining factors involved in the imbalance of power between civilizations across the globe: guns, germs and steel. Why did Eurasian societies grow advanced faster than all others? On top of discussing these factors, the book emphasizes access to domesticable plants and animals, something I referenced in my own post.
I believe this is a great book to understand the progression of events that led to the rise of humanity. This book allowed me to look at different societies and detect differences that may be responsible for the disparities in wealth and power. It enhanced my understanding of interactions between civilizations and the influence of nature on issues that are often dismissed as an abuse of human intellect.
The writing style of this book is great for people seeking to get familiar with the lives of all culturally developed humans. The themes in the book have been selected so that they have no bias and logically argue for and against different civilizations. It does a great job of dismissing the idea that powerful civilizations have individuals that are genetically “better”. This argument is replaced with a scientific analysis of the environment in which civilizations grew and the importance of essential resources for the growth and development of communities.
This review highlights the positive points of Guns, Germs, and Steel. The only negative I have regarding this book is the increasingly data driven language present in the second half of the book. I often found myself distracted when the author backed up his argument with excessive examples. It is because of this dryness of content that I give this book a 7/10.
Here is an Amazon link (Audible/Hardcopy) to the book if you are interested in learning more.