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A review by sminismoni
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
3.0
Look, I appreciate the theory Mr Diamond is trying to promote. And quite probably it is true. However, I don't feel he successfully convinced me. Mostly this was due to a reliance on very limited real data, which was then wildly extrapolated into sweeping generalisations. For example, in Chapter 16, he asserts that China's long east-west rivers (The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers) facilitated sharing of technology, ideas etc. throughout China, supporting cultural and political unification. He then adds, that Western Europe has different terrain "and no such east-west rivers" (The Danube??) and hence has "resisted cultural and political unification to this day" (clearly he hasn't read up on the Holy Roman Empire).
Repeatedly, I felt as though facts were made to fit the theory, while alternative explanations were not sufficiently explored or disproven. Not that I believe race or IQ is the reason for the disparate technological progress of various continents, but I wish I could be as sure of Mr Diamond's hypothesis as he is.
Add to this lots and lots of oblique information and facts (as in the section on languages in Part 3), and we have not only a poorly proven theory, but also at times, a tedious read.
Repeatedly, I felt as though facts were made to fit the theory, while alternative explanations were not sufficiently explored or disproven. Not that I believe race or IQ is the reason for the disparate technological progress of various continents, but I wish I could be as sure of Mr Diamond's hypothesis as he is.
Add to this lots and lots of oblique information and facts (as in the section on languages in Part 3), and we have not only a poorly proven theory, but also at times, a tedious read.