kickerdad - , reviewed on 5/6/2024 + 116 more book reviews

âGuns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societiesâ by Jared Diamond is a fascinating read proposing numerous factors why some cultures evolve and others do not. Stemming from a simple question from a friend, asking why his people (Blacks of New Guinea) didn't have the same things as the whites who came to New Guinea. Diamond distills complicated histories, data from a multitude of different fields of study and sources to present a multifaceted theory. He also comments of the challenges of âanalyzing history' as compared to easier fields of study like physics, chemistry, and molecular biology.
Filled with substantial reference sources, Diamonds isn't a stab in the dark but a well reasoned and structured explanation which is also well written. Countless times while reading an explanation or some background information, I found myself asking âwell, what about â¦â and typically within pages, often within paragraphs, the question was answered as if he were reading my mind. Great anticipation of the readers thoughts!
I wonder how his theory and its assumptions have held up for the past 21 years. What new thing has been learned to add brush strokes to the portrait of his story. [5/5]

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