A Book Chuck Full of Big Ideas

If you have not heard of the theories expounded in this book, it will be a real eye-opener for any reader. Contained within the text is really the mechanism that decided which civilizations were to be successful and which were to remain in the early stages of development. The author does an excellent job explaining in clear easy to understand terms the reasons for Western European civilization's dominance. A dominance to the point of colonizing the remaining lesser developed regions of the Earth.
In a nutshell the Author's point is that every primitive culture has already leveraged and maximized any advantage the environment has offered. Western Europe had inherited and developed the gifts bequeathed from Mesopotamian civilizations including, domesticated animals, some optimal grain crops, some fiber crops. With this springboard combined with the discovery of steel making and by happenstance a society exposed and partially immune to the affects of the major diseases affecting urban populations, it became an invincible combination to subjugate and rule major portions of the globe. Areas of the world that did not benefit from having all the right ingredients or stepping stones to capitalize their environment and take them to the next level were subdued. An example would be a culture without a suitable pack animal such as the domesticated horse doomed that culture to manual labor and almost certain losses when their foot soldiers faced mounted cavalry for the first time. Kudos to the author, big ideas,well thought out, and presented well

excessive bias

The author's biases are showing, and they detract from a good, thorough treatment of a broad and challenging review of the course of human history. While the content is thought provoking and often interestingly portrayed, by the end of the book I could not escape concluding that Dr. Diamond's tremendous amount of time spent afield in New Guinea has warped his ability to provide a balanced analysis of modern civilization. Thematically, the work lapses into excessive rationalizations of the reasons for the variability of technological development amongst societies. It is burdened by anecdote rather than analytic science (e.g. the author's assertion that today's hunter-gatherers are more intelligent than members of technologically advanced societies), and the aforementioned excess bias. Perhaps nothing better illustrates this last than Diamond's perjorative description of all societies beyond tribes as "kleptocracies".

Overall Very Well Done, Convincing/With Some Errors

Jared Diamond's astounding thesis on the developement of human civilizations is one that is thought provoking at the least. The book provides sound and abundant evidence to a geographical explanation of why certain societies come to be superior over others.

Diamond is able to provide a plethora of historical and climatical evidence far above the realms of mere coincidence, striking down the age-old assumption of race superiority as a practical means for explaning modern dominance. Do not heed over-zealous rebuttals and objections all too commonly given to this work - after all, one must establish a personal perception before making the yea/neh decision. Criticism, after all, is the number one method for killing un-popular opinion, as one might notice through the example of Zora-Neale Hurston caught in the rush tide of the Harlem Rennaisance.

The work is not for the adventure seeker either, its romantic sounding title should not give any allusions to action or controversy. It is based in the interest of science, not popular entertainment.

Two minor flaws persist throughout the book: an inevitable brevity in describing the culture of some societies, and a rather discouraging bias counter-productive to the books task at hand. Diamond occasionally flies off the handle to allude a matter-of-fact superiority of the societies whose short-falls he sets out to explain. He provides excellent evidence to support equality of race which is often marred by over-reactionist commentary. The reader gets the sense that Diamond would rather envoke a racial flamewar than appeal to the silent objectionalist.

Bias aside, the book is an excellent read and provides a roadmap to understanding human societies through causation and historical truth rather than the high-flung insecurities of modern supremists.