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Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies | Jared M. Diamond
The author dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors he feels are responsible for history's broadest patterns
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Vivlio_Gnosi
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The question that sparked this entire book.
#nonfiction #history

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Vivlio_Gnosi
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A 1 sentence summary
#nonfiction #history

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Vivlio_Gnosi
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
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Vivlio_Gnosi
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My journey begins. #nonfiction #history

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allenac87
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
Pickpick

An excellent look at the causes of human development across populations

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Parvez
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
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Pickpick

Finished reading. Jared Diamond puts forward his thesis that geographical and environmental factors played a vital role in shaping certain regions. The last few chapters felt repetitive but overall a great book. 4/5

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IuliaC
Guns, Germs And Steel | Jared Diamond
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Pickpick

Although first published in 1997, I've never got to read this one. It also includes a postface to the 2003 edition. The book revolves around the idea that historical progress, development and domination of different populations over others was fueled by their geography and not their biology.

'Over the past 13,000 years the predominant trend in human society has been the replacement of smaller, less complex units by larger, more complex ones.'

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Cosmos_Moon_River
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
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Mehso-so

I feel like this was a (self inflicted) required reading to get through. Thank goodness for audiobooks and a 30 minute commute. This book provides good histories of where people came from and how we are stratified in society today, and argues against some evolutionists racist explanations. In the academic sense, this book is fantastic, however as he does in Collapse, Diamond beats a dead horse at times. Not always captivating and entertaining.

LitStephanie I didn't like this one either. I am often dissatisfied with Diamond's conclusions as it seems to me he cherry picks data. 2y
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Hooked_on_books
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
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I read about half this book eons ago then set it aside and never got back to it. I remember really enjoying it (I was in school at the time, so that‘s probably why it got shelved), so I‘m glad I finally went back and finished it. Diamond lays out how differences in locations most likely led to differences in how societies moved through time, rather than inherent racial (racist) differences. 👇🏼

Hooked_on_books Tucked inside, I found this letter from my aunt in 1999 (she died in her 90s within 6 months of writing it), so this book is a time capsule! According to her letter, I was recommending books even then! 2y
vivastory I love everything about this review! 2y
52 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Hooked_on_books
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
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In this book, Diamond discusses how different groups of people developed differently, not because of inherent differences between different peoples, but because of aspects of their surroundings. I thought this fact about zebras was fascinating. Apparently they‘re also quite bitey and then don‘t let go. 🦓

TheAromaofBooks When I was a kid I read the book The Horse Tamer by Walter Farley (also wrote The Black Stallion, who makes a cameo appearance in this one haha) but one of the big finale moments of ruining the life of the bad guy is this incredibly mean-tempered zebra called Man-Eater. It was SO SCARY! 😂 Especially when I looked it up and zebras actually are known for being unpleasant to humans! Made me nervous in zoos forever! 😆 2y
Hooked_on_books @TheAromaofBooks Walter did his homework! I love when authors get details like that right. And you were right to be nervous at zoos—zebras hurt zookeepers more than any other animal. I never would have guessed! 2y
38 likes2 comments
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ravenlee
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Pickpick

Fascinating look into proximate and ultimate causes in world history, specifically who conquered whom rather than vice versa. Looks at environmental resources (domesticable plants/animals, minerals), climate, continental axes - and how they all affect the peoples who live in these regions.
March #Roll100 and April #BookSpin

PuddleJumper 🎉🎉 3y
KCofKaysville @ravenlee Always wanted to read it. Sounds informative. 3y
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 3y
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ravenlee
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#DannyBoy insists on snuggling my feet…which is kind of ticklish. Kiddo and hubby are playing chess while we all wait for our loaded baked potato pizza to bake. Friday nights are wild around here! #catsofLitsy

Ruthiella That‘s my idea of an excellent “wild” Friday night!😆 3y
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ravenlee
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Finally getting going on this one today, with leftover pineapple pizza for lunch. It‘s a busy week for me, as my gig rehearsals started Sunday night and go every night this week until the show starts Friday. Kiddo‘s swim class yesterday afternoon was cancelled (of course they didn‘t freaking tell me that) but we got pizza to make life easier on us all and celebrate Pi Day. Another attempt at swim class today 🤞🏻

kspenmoll Great book!!! 3y
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Adventures_of_a_French_Reader
Guns, Germs And Steel | Jared Diamond
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Pickpick

3/5
The content is very interesting, but it reads more like a textbook, which can make it a tedious read. Jared Diamond offers a very well argumented explanation for the development disparities between human societies. So, if you are passionate about history and geography, this book might interest you ;)

Full blog article: https://the-literary-adventures-of-a-french-reader.com/blog/guns-germs-and-steel...

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sarahlandis
Guns, Germs And Steel | Jared Diamond
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Mehso-so

I cannot recommend this book. The information: fascinating. The delivery?: dreadful. It‘s like the author purposefully chose the most boring and confusing way to write sentences to make the information hard for readers to ingest. It took me over four months to read! This sounds harsh. I just didn‘t vibe with his writing style. However, the information was very intriguing. If nothing else, it really drives home that geography is very important.

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ravenlee
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
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The Emily Windsnap is for the kiddo, and hubby gets a couple of train magazines. The rest? It‘s all mine! I actually went into a bookstore and just browsed and bought whatever I wanted! (Ok, within reason and a limited time frame, I was waiting for my grocery pickup slot, but BN is next door to Kroger...)
#bookhaul #bookshoppingmakesmefeelbetter

Hooked_on_books What a conveniently placed bookstore! 4y
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TortelliAllaZucca
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Pickpick

⭐4/5
The book is simple to understand, even though it touches complicated subjects.
Most parts are explained very well, so that everything is clear even for those who don't possess any previous knowledge on the topic.
The last chapters can feel a little repetitive though.

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TortelliAllaZucca
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
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“Throughout human history farmers have tended to despise hunter-gatherers as primitive, hunter-gatherers have despised farmers as ignorant, and herders have despised both“
Mankind has always despised itself, I guess

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Addison_Reads
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#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks #NonFiction2021 @Riveted_Reader_Melissa

Dense read that I found myself enjoying far more than any history class I've had on the subject. This book is packed full of information and at times it felt a bit overwhelming, but overall it flowed well.

I did a combination of the audio and the physical book and I found the narrator to be dry. The tables and photos add to the details in the physical book which I liked.

Megabooks I read this in college and loved it! 4y
Addison_Reads @Megabooks I want to read the next two books he wrote in this series now too. Have you read them? 4y
Megabooks I just finished Upheaval recently but haven‘t read the other one. Upheaval was very interesting, but it wasn‘t the huge revelation that GGS was. Possibly because I read GGS at 21 and Upheaval at 40. 4y
See All 7 Comments
Crazeedi I've had this on my shelf for a couple years, I really need to read 4y
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! 4y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Sounds really good! 4y
vivastory Definitely plan on reading this one this year 4y
53 likes5 stack adds7 comments
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Owls31092
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Although I hate the author‘s use of first person and there were often times I didn‘t know where he was headed, I definitely recommend this book for scientists and historians alike as the book applies science to history and answers many questions historians might have they don‘t even know they have.

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Trace
Mehso-so

Interesting account on why societies and areas of the world have progressed more than others.

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Owls31092
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Owls31092
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Owls31092
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
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RamsFan1963
Guns, Germs And Steel | Jared Diamond
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Pickpick

This teetered between a so-so and a pick, but the detail information delivered pushed it to a low pick. I think I would have enjoyed reading it more than listening, the narrator was dry and a bit droning, which caused my mind to wander. 3 💥💥💥 1/2
#AwesomeAugust @Andrew65
#LitsyAtoZ #LetterG @BookishMarginalia
7/10 #bookbuyingdiet

Crazeedi I have this on my shelf and I am definitely going to read soon, I've been reading books about viruses, epidemics etc lately!! 4y
Andrew65 @Crazeedi Feels like we‘ve been writing one recently! 4y
Andrew65 Well done 👏👏👏 4y
Crazeedi @Andrew65 lol😉 4y
44 likes4 comments
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K.Wielechowski
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Pickpick

Not what I was expecting but interesting nonetheless.
Examines the evolution of human societies by looking at their technology, movement, and development of written languages. Also compares societies in close proximity to each other and how they developed differently ex. Aboriginal people in Australia compared to native people in New Zealand.

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ONH
Guns, Germs And Steel | Jared Diamond
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I‘m interested in wine, cheese, and reading ... lol or Guns, Germs, and Steel I guess 🤪 Very excellent nonfiction book. I‘ve read other books by this author and this fits nicely in the scope of those but is also by far his most well-written.

“History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples‘ environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves.” 🔫🦠⚔️

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Cosmos_Moon_River
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Even though it‘s Friday... #thoughtfulThursday 🦋watching my plants bloom and new leaves bud, buzzing with bees and fluttering with butterflies 🌈 some fun music to dance with my kids 🧁 cheesecake 💗 @HollyDollyMe @AprilOatmeal @MoonWitch94 @DuetForever @Coconut_shawty

MoonWitch94 Thanks for playing 🦋🌼🦋 5y
4 likes1 comment
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LisaMorr
Guns, Germs And Steel | Jared Diamond
Pickpick

I was wavering a bit on making this so-so because it took me months to finish - I found him to quite repetitive. But, the fantastic concepts he brought forward make this a pick! The main things I took away are how the east-west axis of Eurasia made ideas, people, inventions easier to spread than the north-south axes of Africa and the Americas, and the produce and animal combination that Eurasia started with was so much more conducive to success.

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Vivlio_Gnosi
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This may be the one #Nonfiction #historical book that I'm adding to my #TBR stack that I am most excited about. I've heard so many good things about it! A friend gave it to me because it was "too boring". Challenge Accepted!
#NFNov @rsteve388 @Clwojick #PulitzerPrize

juls29 I read this for history class in college and found it fascinating. Hope you enjoy it! (edited) 5y
Vivlio_Gnosi Thanks, @juls29 ! I plan to. Do you remember how long it took you to finish? 5y
juls29 @Vivlio_Gnosi we read it during the whole semester of a class. I didn‘t try to read ahead or anything. It‘s a fairly big book so I‘d say if I was reading it for fun it would take a couple weeks or so. 5y
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AnneCecilie I loved this one. It made me see the world in a different light. 5y
Vivlio_Gnosi I'm excited to get started. I may just jump this book next in line. 5y
rsteve388 1 pt 5y
8 likes2 stack adds6 comments
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LisaMorr
Guns, Germs And Steel | Jared Diamond
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No, not a surprise 😏!
“I may come as a surprise to learn that plant seeds can resist digestion by your gut and nonetheless germinate out of your feces. But any adventurous readers who are not too squeamish can make the test and prove if for themselves.”
No, not going to perform a test... 😝

Crazeedi Have had this on my shelf for a few years, I absolutely need to read!! 5y
LisaMorr It‘s really interesting! 5y
7 likes2 comments
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JessNevertheless
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"Working" while reading ?. Intetesting theories presented so far!

Red.Reads This is in my TBR pile, I'm hoping it turns out to be as interesting as I've heard it is! 6y
JessNevertheless @Red.Reads Update: I think I'm bailing on this book for now. If you have it in a hard copy that might be better but I feel like I've been listening to a reiteration of one interesting theory for hours now. Might be easier to distinguish if you could easily go back and reread? 6y
37 likes2 comments
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ghandigl

The annals of medicine are full of accounts of diseases that sound like no disease known today, but that once caused terrifying epidemics and then disappeared as mysteriously as they had come.

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Gezemice
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
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Pickpick

Why did Europeans spread all over the world, and not Polynesians or Aztecs? Because they had guns, germs and steel, which those other societies did not. But why did they have them? Jared Diamond traces the advantage back to early and wide adoption of food production, which in turn was based on environmental conditions, and not innate abilities. Fascinating, highly educational, well-researched, albeit occasionally too technical. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Gezemice This is a book that can change how you view the world. Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2689478043 6y
GingerAntics This is a very popular summer reading books of AP World History. 6y
Gezemice @GingerAntics I did not know that, but I could see why. I will never think of rich vs. poor countries the same way again. 6y
See All 8 Comments
GingerAntics Right? I think it works well to change up the way students think. Admittedly, as the tutor I bought the book... then watched the documentary. Maybe I should read the book one of these days? 😂 (edited) 6y
Gezemice @GingerAntics There is a documentary? And yes, you should. 😉 6y
GingerAntics Yeah, it‘s in three episodes. I got it on iTunes. Good stuff. 6y
Gezemice @GingerAntics Cool, I should look for it! Thanks! 6y
GingerAntics The author hosts it or narrates it or whatever, so it‘s almost like if he were going to cover the book in three lectures, these would be it. 👍🏻 6y
76 likes2 stack adds8 comments
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Agabriv
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Xanhe
Guns, Germs and Steel | Diamond, Jared
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Pickpick

If you have ever questioned the nature and conditions that lead some cultures to thrive and others to fail, this is a great historical overview of why Europeans have come to dominate the latter part of these centuries.