Diamond's main theme in Guns, Germs, and Steel is that the advantage of one society over another is not based on race or intelligence as some historians have claimed but instead on geography. Certain favorable aspects of local geography allow a group of people who live in that area to more easily produce food.
What does Diamond say Guns, Germs and Steel represent?
One of the more popular 2011 common read assignments is Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Society. Instead, Diamond argues that the hegemony of the West can be attributed to the confluence of certain geographic and environmental factors.Sep 8, 2011
What is the conclusion of Guns, Germs and Steel?
The main conclusion of the book is that the success of one group of people in developing civilization earlier, and in eventually displacing others, is due to their good fortune of having locally available plants and animals that were suitable for domestication.
What is the central question of Guns, Germs and Steel?
Diamond's main theme in Guns, Germs, and Steel is that the advantage of one society over another is not based on race or intelligence as some historians have claimed but instead on geography.
Is Guns Germs steel worth reading?
The book provides a very good overview of the history of the human species and our ancestors, and I certainly recommend it to anyone who's interested in the subject. I read it several years ago and thought that it was an interesting book and well worth the effort of reading.
What's wrong with Guns Germs and Steel?
As we learned, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Societies is a historical book that has had an enormous impact on history, geography, anthropology, and many other fields. The main criticism against this book is that it neglects the impact of human agency and overemphasizes the role of geography.
Those were as accurate as possible when the book was written, and are not substantially different in 2020, even if some data has changed. However the main theory advertised by the book remains is based on environmental determinism, which is not an objective way to approach history.
What is the thesis of Jared Diamond's classic Guns Germs and Steel?
Guns, Germs, and Steel argues that cities require an ample supply of food, and thus are dependent on agriculture. As farmers do the work of providing food, division of labor allows others freedom to pursue other functions, such as mining and literacy.