A review by shayzard
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

5.0

I was assigned this book about ten years ago for an anthropology class I took as an elective. I "read" it then, but I didn't really read it as closely as I read things now that I'm in grad school. I'm aware of a lot of historians and scientists who don't like this book, citing inaccuracies and their disagreements with Diamond's hypothesis that certain countries developed faster because of a chain of factors; geography, which led to their being able to switch to sedentary life and farm and reproduce food more rapidly, which led to them domesticating animals and develop immunities, and then to develop technology once they were settled and had the resources. Of course, there's a lot more to it, which is why this is a 600+ page book. I'm not a historian; I write fiction and study creative writing. I wanted to revisit this book before starting some others to see if I can enjoy learning history and anthropology and perhaps some science on my own, from well-written books like this. This was a good starting point, and one I'd recommend for anyone with a similar idea in mind. The prose starts out very accessible, thought it gradually gets more dense as it goes.