Guns, Germs and Steel

The Fate of Human Societies

De: Jared Diamond

Narrado por: Doug Ordunio

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs and Steel examines the rise of civilization and the issues its development has raised throughout history.
 
Having done field work in New Guinea for more than 30 years, Jared Diamond presents the geographical and ecological factors that have shaped the modern world. From the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist, he highlights the broadest movements both literal and conceptual on every continent since the Ice Age, and examines societal advances such as writing, religion, government, and technology.  Diamond also dissects racial theories of global history, and the resulting work—Guns, Germs and Steel—is a major contribution to our understanding the evolution of human societies.

Reseñas de la Crítica

Artful, informative, and delightful.... There is nothing like a radically new angle of vision for bringing out unsuspected dimensions of a subject, and that is what Jared Diamond has done.—William H. McNeil, New York Review of Books

An ambitious, highly important book.—James Shreeve, New York Times Book Review

A book of remarkable scope, a history of the world in less than 500 pages which succeeds admirably, where so many others have failed, in analyzing some of the basic workings of culture process.... One of the most important and readable works on the human past published in recent years.—Colin Renfrew, Nature

The scope and the explanatory power of this book are astounding.—The New Yorker

No scientist brings more experience from the laboratory and field, none thinks more deeply about social issues or addresses them with greater clarity, than Jared Diamond as illustrated by Guns, Germs, and Steel. In this remarkably readable book he shows how history and biology can enrich one another to produce a deeper understanding of the human condition. —Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University

Serious, groundbreaking biological studies of human history only seem to come along once every generation or so. . . . Now [Guns, Germs, and Steel] must be added to their select number. . . . Diamond meshes technological mastery with historical sweep, anecdotal delight with broad conceptual vision, and command of sources with creative leaps. No finer work of its kind has been published this year, or for many past. —Martin Sieff, Washington Times

[Diamond] is broadly erudite, writes in a style that pleasantly expresses scientific concepts in vernacular American English, and deals almost exclusively in questions that should interest everyone concerned about how humanity has developed. . . . [He] has done us all a great favor by supplying a rock-solid alternative to the racist answer. . . . A wonderfully interesting book.—Alfred W. Crosby, Los Angeles Times

An epochal work. Diamond has written a summary of human history that can be accounted, for the time being, as Darwinian in its authority.—Thomas M. Disch, The New Leader

interesting but dry

I had some difficulty staying focused on the subjects due to the fact that the narrator was a bit on the side of sleep inducing. A soothing voice but dry in the reading, often coming across as methodical and like a recitation of facts. Much of the information is interesting but it was hard to stay focused. I think I got about 50% of what the author was saying just due to the dry expression of the narrator.

Persuasive argument but poor narration

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Diamond supports his core argument with a wealth of information, but devoting so many pages to the same argument dilutes the potency.

How could the performance have been better?

The recording quality of the narrator was poor and Ordunio has little color in his voice.

Interesting science but so-so writing.

Jared Diamond's thesis is interesting and thought-provoking, but this treatment of it is overdone and somewhat tedious.

The idea that human cultures are shaped by their environment and other non-human factors (such as animal and plant species) makes a lot of sense and Diamond does a good job of demonstrating the validity of the ideas. However, the book spends a lot of time driving home his points, and after a while, I just found it tedious to slog through the book.

The narration is good without being fantastic.

A Meticulous Examination of Variable Development

What did you love best about Guns, Germs and Steel?

This book is phenomenal. Jared Diamond plods his way through a millennia-long chain of causality in an effort to explain the different rates at which societies developed various technological, organizational, and other advancements. He makes extensive use of deductive reasoning to isolate individual influences and eliminate confounding elements. This use of scientific principles in the study of history should be a model to other thinkers who wish to engage in historical analysis.

Information dense, but hard to listen to

Would you be willing to try another book from Jared Diamond? Why or why not?

Yes. Diamond is a brilliant analytical thinker. I would be interested in almost anything he had to say.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Doug Ordunio?

Maybe. I found the reading very monotone, but the text itself was also tedious, so it may be unfair to say he is the reason.

Any additional comments?

Though there is no real Aha moment in this book, the title tells much of the story and I already had a passive understanding of the material. But I enjoyed the detailed analysis of why white Europeans came to be so dominant in the world, when there is no inherent advantage. And I feel like the knowledge was worth the time.

This book confirmed that, indeed, a homo sapien is a homo sapien, regardless of race, creed, etc., but by the luck of the draw, the homo sapiens that staked in what is now Europe gained advantages that led to a quicker path towards abundance of food and technology, and resistance to diseases. It could also be called Food, Germs and Technology.

The text is very dry for an audio book and the reader's voice didn't help with that. I found it a slog to listen for long stretches so it took me forever to finish.

I gave the story 3 stars, not because it lacked the detail, but because there was little storytelling. It could have used more examples and fewer lists and charts. Even a story about his own discoveries and where they took him would have made for a more interesting "read."