Insightful, but too "politically correct"

books:


	• Guns, Germs and Steel Jared Diamond W W Norton & Co Inc (Np), 2005 average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Must read

This is an excellent book and is a must read for anyone who cares about the history (and reasons why it unfolded the way it did) of the growth of civilization.

History to be read

I read this book a few months ago and still think about some of his theorys. I really enjoyed the book and am real glad I read It. Read this book as a must and draw your own conclusions.

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Long, but great read!

Of course this book is a longer read than most but, pick it up if you are the least bit intrigued in the factors which make civilizations great. No matter what the critique, this book definitely makes you think of the world's history through a different lens then you are used to. Contemplate Wright's Non Zero and Huntington's Clash of Civilizations as follow-on texts.

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Insightful, but too "politically correct"

I believe that if Professor Diamond had not suggested that the economic gap between first and third-world nations was due to environmental differences "exclusively" (as opposed to allowing for the possibility of group/genetic/biological/racial differences), this book would never have been awarded the Pulitzer by the politically-correct powers that be. In fact, he may have won that award for the very reason that he categorically dismisses any other possible explanation beyond a series of environmental factors that came into play in the past 13,000 years.

According to Diamond, the observed disparity between African and European nations, for instance, is due only (and could only be due) to factors external to the collective I.Q. of those who comprise these nations. But, curiously, it's not that the professor rejects the possibility that inhabitants of countries can differ collectively in I.Q. (in fact, in both the Prologue and Epilogue, the author tacks on his assertion that the indigenous people of Papua, New Guinea are "smarter" that many other human societies.) The real reason the author maintains his position is...well, he never really explains why he can't possibly fathom that biological differences could even be a minor factor in the mix. If the Papua people are smarter---and haven't been trailblazers for Guns, Germs and Steel---Diamond evidently reasons that biological differences can't be a factor. Maybe in the back of his mind, the good professor knew that if he suggested otherwise, the book wouldn't have sold a fraction of its current sales...(and why he believes that Papuans are so much smarter than Westerners is not clearly explained by Diamond, either.)

Despite Diamond's somewhat narrow, "incomplete" analysis, the basic thesis of the book---that geographic differences in the availability of food; the conduciveness of intracontinental travel; and the size of resident human populations together account for the differences in human outcomes---is in its own right quite fascinating. (Therefore, I do give the book 3 stars).

I simply object to how adamantly the author expounds on his theory. I would have hoped for a less authoritative approach, and greater openness to explanations other than the author's narrow subset of possibilities.

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reviews: page 1, 2

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