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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 909
EAN: 9780739467350
ISBN: 0739467352
Label: W W Norton & Co Inc (Np)
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc (Np)
Publication Date: June 30, 2005
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc (Np)
Studio: W W Norton & Co Inc (Np)

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Rating: - Excellent attempt at broad picture of human history
The final frontier?
Charles Darwin, an unsuspecting geologist's on HMS Beagle, recorded the rich variety of geological features, fossils and living organisms encountered on five-year journey to the new lands. A gift of critical insight, keen observation power, an ability to explain the observations by hypothesis, and an ability to bolster hypotheses by evidence leading to a theory helped him gain insight into the process which led to development of twelve different species of finches from ... Read More

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Rating: - An amazingly well done and unique perspective on the evolution of human cultures
Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" is a thoughtful, well researched text that brings a new perspective to the question of why some societies have remained marginalized in the modern world, while others, particularly societies springing from the Western European cultural tradition, have been able to rise to world dominance in the 19th, 20th, and (so far) 21st centuries.

This second edition of the book adds some interesting perspectives and thoughts ... Read More

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Rating: - Let's see, guns, germs, steel..left anything out?...Oh, how about culture?
First I will agree with many reviewers in that Diamond makes a compelling argument for the influence of the relative starting points of different human societies. It was fascinating to read about the availability of potential food crops and domesticated animals and to see how this had repercussions in a society's development. I was a bit put off by the straw man Diamond continually was knocking down: the argument that some societies succeeded due to inherent genetic advantages (is anyone actually making ... Read More

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Rating: - Must read
This is an excellent book and is a must read for anyone who cares about the history (and reasons why it unfolded the way it did) of the growth of civilization.

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Rating: - Insightful, but too "politically correct"
I believe that if Professor Diamond had not suggested that the economic gap between first and third-world nations was due to environmental differences "exclusively" (as opposed to allowing for the possibility of group/genetic/biological/racial differences), this book would never have been awarded the Pulitzer by the politically-correct powers that be. In fact, he may have won that award for the very reason that he categorically dismisses any other possible explanation beyond a series of environmental factors ... Read More

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