Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond - A Systematic Summary and Review (Book Review Sample)

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond - A Systematic Summary and Review
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Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond- A Systematic Summary and Review
In Guns, Germs and Steel, bestselling author Jared Diamond puts up a spirited argument in providing explanations of the wealth disparity in the world today. The book is an argument laced with literary artisanship with the main preoccupation of providing justifications of why some communities are more successful materially than others. In this endeavor, Diamond suggests that the current world inequity can be conceived historically in the context of the use of steel, animal domestication, food production and geographical disparities. In offering an account of more than 13,000 years, Diamond puts up a convincing case that geography and the environment in general (and not race or biology) are the most significant variables that can be used to explain regional socio-economic disparities. The writer uses a variety of writing techniques including narrations to provide insights and offer a fresh access to reality by espousing the specific mechanisms through which some communities amassed material wealth more than others and sometimes, at the expense of others.
One of the key ideas in the book that has also subjected it to intense criticism is the argument that European powers never obtained the systemic power through the greatness of skill or mind. Drawing from the perspectives that shaped world history, Diamond gathers evidence relating to settler colonialism and its associated hazards, which ostensibly led to what he refers to as "geographic luck." According to him, the systemic powers characteristic of the most developed parts of the world was not acquired through deliberate effort, but a pure chance occasioned by the functional mechanisms of racism. Moreover, Guns, Germs and Steel discusses the various factors that led to Eurasia getting ahead of the rest of the world especially environmental differences. The book gets more interesting at the point where Diamond singles out the differences between flora and fauna that are fit for domestication as a factor that explains socio-economic disparities between Eurasia and the rest of the world. International geographical barriers, isolation of some sections of the world and axes are some considerations Diamond also appeals to as possible explanations for wealth disparities.
From a general perspective, it is easy to see that Diamond’s major concern in the book is to provide not only an explanation for world inequity based on geographical and environmental differences but also squash any such arguments that are hinged on racial differences. More aptly, Diamond argues that there is no fundamental difference between races. To support his arguments, he draws a comparison between individuals living in harsh conditions in New Guinea and those living lavish lives in Europe to make the point that living in harsh conditions require more intelligence. Using a narration to this effect, Diamond appeals to the laws of social Darwinism to explain that if any explanation of racial superiority as a basis for world inequality is to be accepted, New Guinea must be justified as among the richest since its peoples are "more intelligent" based on the fact that they can survive harsh climatic conditions. From the second chapter of the book, Diamond unsurprisingly adopts an anecdotal approach discussing some of the tenet themes of the book through his encounters with the ‘primitive people especially with the manner in which they adapt to technology. The major argument that Diamond succeeds in providing in the narrations of his encounters is that technology is essentially due to innovativeness and that given similar conditions, all races can be equally innovative.
In the last half of the book, Diamond provides the specific agricultural, cultural and social practices that led to world inequality. Each chapter of the book addresses a specific mechanism providing the situational factors that led to gross economic disparities on the planet. In chapter 13, Necessity’s Mother, Diamond puts forth one of his clearest explanations of world inequality by explaining how early models of inventions were received differently in different parts of the world. He argues that in the ancient times, early forms of civilization (technology) were incorporated into the society based on their social prestige, economic significance, visibility of its proceeds and its compatibility with the status quo. Further, he explains how the successful adoption of technology can make a community more superior than the other and this explanation is a microcosm of the larger story in Guns, Germs and Steel that seeks to answer Yali’s question: Why are some communities more prosperous than others are? The chronology with which Diamond explains technology, its reception in the society and how this influences that particular society with respect to the other is a systematic and structu...