Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (20th Anniversary Edition)
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4.3 • 170 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."—Bill Gates
In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this Pulitzer Prize–winning bestseller, Jared Diamond argues that European nations’ conquests of the New World weren’t a result of an inherent superiority over the hunter-gatherer societies they met across the Atlantic. Instead, accidents of geography and environment helped European societies develop agriculture faster, a head start that eventually led to the guns and steel of the title—and gave them resistance to diseases like smallpox and measles. As vital today as ever, Guns, Germs, and Steel debunks pseudo-scientific theories of European genetic supremacy with Diamond’s clear, compelling theories of how human civilization developed at different rates across the globe.
Customer Reviews
Great read
And very interesting theories that explain the world today.
Insightful and Inspiring
Answers the question, where did we come from.
Awesome
Gave me a better understanding of how society today came to be. Really put a great perspective to realizing that we are all equal, and because of certain terrain and just mundane way of life shaped societies as a whole.