I first read Jared Diamond’s Guns‚ Germs‚ and Steel in the Fall 2003 based on a recommendation from a friend. Many chapters of the book are truly fascinating‚ but I had criticisms of the book back then and hold even more now. Chief among these is the preponderance of analysis devoted to Papua New Guinea‚ as opposed to‚ say‚ an explanation of the greatly disparate levels of wealth and development among Eurasian nations. I will therefore attempt to confine this review on the "meat and potatoes" of
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Book Review Katrina Yurkiw Guns‚ Germs‚ and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Jared Diamond W. W. Norton and Company April 1st‚ 1999 480 Pages ISBN: 0393317552 Guns‚ Germs‚ and Steel is a fascinating perspective taken by Professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA‚ Jared Diamond. Diamond’s purpose was to explain why Eurasian civilizations have had such immense success conquering people and land other than their own. Diamond’s aim is to answer Yali’s question: Why is that white people
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Guns‚ Germs‚ and Steel Episode Three: Into the Tropics This episode was actually rather interesting. In general‚ it basically discussed how guns‚ germs‚ and steel have affected and influenced the shaping of African societies as it is today. Diamond’s main quest is to answer the question: why did the world become so unequal? In the mid-1600s the Europeans first arrive at the southernmost tip of South Africa. The southernmost tip of Africa and Europe are almost identical in latitude‚ with
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Guns‚ Germs‚ and Steel Quineshia Tucker August 19‚ 2011 AP World History 30 Block Jared Diamond was born on September 10‚ 1937 in Boston‚ Massachusetts. He was raised by two highly intelligent people. Mrs. Diamond‚ his mother‚ was a linguist while his father‚ Mr. Diamond was a physician. He grew to love science due to his intellectual upbringing. He was born to a Bessarabian Jewish family. His father attended Harvard University of Medical. Though Jared attended
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Guns‚ Germs‚ and Steel Video Questions/ Answers Episode 1 Name: Cindy Liu Per______ Jared Diamond has a theory about what causes huge discrepancies among different countries‚ and he says it boils down to geographic luck. What was great about the “Fertile Crescent”? The big four livestock animals; cows‚ pigs‚ sheep‚ and goats‚ were native to the Middle East. Also‚ due to its fertile land‚ the Fertile Crescent housed the best crops in the world. The great crops and animals it had benefited the civilizations
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Guns‚ Germs and Steel Jared Diamond‚ author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning‚ National Best Selling book Guns‚ Germs and Steel‚ summarizes his book by saying the following: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples ’ environments‚ not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Guns‚ Germs and Steel is historical literature that documents Jared Diamond ’s views on how the world as we know it developed. However‚ is his thesis that
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Guns‚ Germs‚ and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies‚ by Jared Diamond‚ attempts to explain why history progressed differently for people from various geographical regions. Diamond introduces his book by pointing out that history followed different courses for different people because of differences among peoples’ environments‚ not because of biological differences among people themselves. Through his convincing explanation for how civilizations were created and evolved throughout the course of history
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Major Themes of Guns‚ Germs‚ and Steel As Jared Diamond examines the major factors of a great civilization after being posed by Yali’s question‚ he comes to an astounding realization. It is that Asians and Europeans came to be powerful not because they were smarter or better than other civilizations‚ but because they were luckier in terms of geography. Diamond focuses on the idea that the success of a society is not catalyzed by genetics or natural superiority‚ but instead by these two major
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Time can provide connections and ideas of answers to complicated and intricate questions. In the book Guns‚ Germs‚ and Steel by Jared Diamond‚ the author encounters a man named Yali while on a trip to new Guinea. Yali asks Diamond a question that is essentially about advantages and disadvantages between different civilizations. The author cannot provide a definite answer. Later in the book‚ Jared Diamond describes how Francisco Pizarro‚ a Spanish conquistador‚ easily overcame the Incas using European
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Pizzaro came back to Charles I saying that Europe had the power to conquer the Americas. There were reasons Pizarro and the Europeans could conquer the Americas… They had better warfare than the Incas. Pizarro’s men had armor rode horseback and used steel compared to their wooden weapons. Eurasia happened to have an abundance of edible material because of the right environment leading to the domestication of plants and animals led the people to settle down in one place instead of being nomads. When
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