Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

I've seen so many critiques and reviews on the internet, from scholars and professional reviewers, that seem like they haven't even read the book. For almost every critique that can be raised, Jared Daimond addresses it in his book already. If you will just read the book yourself, in its entirety, you will see what I mean. This book and the broad explanations he puts forward are pretty much beyond reproach, not least because of their broad scope.

Many criticisms can be refuted because the book focuses on the broadest patterns of history, taken over timespans of several hundred years or more.

Another essential point to keep in mind before critiquing is that Daimond distinguishes between proximate and ultimate factors, and raises this distinction repeatedly throughout the book. So before raising a criticism, stop and considered whether you are addressing a proximate cause (like technological advances, or large population) or an ulimate cause (which will inevitably be reduced to one of a few factors which are the very premise of the book).

These ultimate factors can be crudely boiled down to the following:
1)Naturally occurring species of easily domesticable plants (species which are highly nuritious) and large animals.

2)Geographical features (impassable mountains and deserts, location across differing latitudes and climates) that facilitate or impede diffussion of agriculture, technology, and population.

--and that is the book in a nutshell. Those grossly reduced ideas I will carry with me forever and consider every time I hear an explanation of historical outcomes.

In the first half of the book Diamond presents his thesis why certain continents are richer than other continents. This is fascinating reading as long as Diamond describes pre-historic times. His arguments are the strongest I have seen so far. Diamond is much less convincing when he moves to historic times and tries to explain differential performance within a given continent. The second half of the book describe individual continents and is quite tedious, but there is no need to read this section unless you have special interests in a particular region.

The first half or the book is so interesting and thoughtful so it is a must read.

Btw, do not buy the DVD with Diamond, it is quite dull. The book is much better.

This is a truly profound book, and quite elegantly written. The central insight is how geography has been a main driving factor in the development of civilizations. Diamond comes at this thesis from several different angles, most importantly after looking at how development has differed between different regions.
Diamond builds a very compelling argument, and is helped by his intimate knowledge of many places - knowledge which comes from actually having spent quite a deal of traveling. He is also helped by his diverse background - as a scientist he has also written two brilliant books on biology (The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) & Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution Of Human Sexuality (Science Masters)).
This is popular science at its best, easily understandable, yet deep in insight.

This is a fascinating study of how societies developed, however, it's frustrating that Diamond takes such an ideological position at the outset, ruling out some factors simply because he doesn't like them.

"Inexcusably for an evolutionary biologist, Diamond fails to inform his readers that it is different environments that cause, via natural selection, biological differences among populations. All of the Eurasian developments he described created positive feedback loops selecting for increased intelligence and various personality traits (e.g., altruism, rule-following, etc.)."

Dr. Diamond's magnum opus for which he has won an Oscar. Or maybe it was the Pullet Surprise. Something like that.

Unrivaled, in the experience of this humble reviewer, in either clarity or insight, GGS, is one of the best books I have ever read. Diamond is a gifted writer and is able to present complex issues simply and clearly. He also presents several interesting hypotheses regarding the evolution of civilization about how the humans had uncomfortably little to do with anything. We are the products of the plants and animals we domesticated. So go read the book before I domesticate you...