Location Location Location

As you can tell from the list at the bottom of the right column, I have indeed finished Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. By some strange chance of fate, I was put in the position to read this Pulitzer Prize winning book, that I borrowed from a friend of mine. He had enjoyed it a great deal, and both he and I thought I would do the same. There are reviews both here and here, as well as purchasing information.

The book is very simple in its idea, but very broad in its scope. Basically the book starts with a question and then proceeds down a path to try to illuminate some of the larger components of the answer. The question is simply, Why did Europe explode onto the world stage and extent it’s power, influence, and peoples to nearly every corner of the globe, instead of some other continent doing it first? It’s a question that has enticed scholars for centuries, and plagued the conquered for even longer.

Jared Diamond is a professor of physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine, but he delves into numerous branches of science to tackle the question. Many explanations have been put forth for the incredible differences in technological and sociological advancement in different human societies. Some of the more familiar are religion, trade, societal acceptance of change, racial differences, and environmental harshness. Diamond puts forth that most of these are secondary aspects. For him the ultimate causal point is location. Almost all human expansion and differences in advancement and change can be traced to geography and the types of flora and fauna present or imported.

The book is written in an easy to follow style that does an excellent job of explaining the reasoning and evidence behind the path Diamond has taken. He isn’t a one discipline pony either. He pulls from genetic information, archeological evidence (bones, tool designs, boat designs, carbon dating, societal structure, etc.), nutritional anthropology, botany, climatology, zoology, and linguistic anthropology.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes history, science, and a little bit of politics wrapped up in big picture kinds of ways. The above links to reviews have the books at 4 stars in both locations. I give it 5. It won the Pulitzer for crying out loud. I personally think it kicks ass and am going to recommend it to everyone I know that would enjoy it.

Now it’s off to the next book in my pile. I’m only two chapters in and so far,and it’s pretty funny.