Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant piece of work
Review: A wonderful piece of scientific writing which will shape how we view our world and societies.As for the person who said "i found his book a bit eurocentric. He ignores important achievements of new world civilizations and focuses on the developments of early europeans civilizations in the fertile crescent. He seems to emphasiz the lack of european cultural tools in non-european cultures! Always, the european way seems to be better in his view." He _never_ says which way is better per se, but he does indicate that people armed with horses, cannon and muskets have a significant advantage over spear throwing foot soldiers. Primarily though his focus is on HOW the different societies became (or did not become) more advanced. He does not do this to prove superiority of any one race/people - more to point out the impact of geography upon the rate of scientific/technological advance. Basically saying we are all equally able races but our environment was a key to our development technologically.
Rating: 
Summary: an obvious work of obvious brilliance
Review: "Guns, Germs and Steel" is on of those books that makes you cringe as each piece of the well-constructed argument unfolds -- cringe, because you wonder why it has taken so long for somebody to think this up, and why, in fact, you didn't think it up yourself. Diamond draws upon a wealth of expertise in fields as diverse as botany, zoology, archaeology and anthropology to produce a non-racist, environmental explanation for why European peoples came to dominate the globe. You may have to read it in order to believe it. As the simplicity and obviousness of Diamond's multi-layered argument unfolds, it has the reader repeatedly slapping his hand on his forehead and saying "duh". You wonder why, for so many years, so many of us have subconsciously entertained simplistic, culturally-based explanations of the "backwardness" of the world's colonized peoples. Now we know the true story, and we owe a big vote of thanks to Jared Diamond for writing it. Even if his detailed explanations are a bit long-winded and repetitive at times, he makes up for this shortcoming with just enough amusing anectodes about the ironies inherent in the "fates of human societies" to make this book an expansive and delicious read.
Rating:
Summary: A scholarly work
Review: A remarkable history of the last 13,000 years. Diamond's prose style is a bit cumbersome at times but he documents his thesis with good data from a variety of scientific fields. I found the book somwhat repetitive but it is a facinating topic, well researched and well presented. A real thought provoker.
Rating:
Summary: excellent reading, breaks new ground, although...
Review: Diamond has set out to explain why certain cultures ended up with all the heavy weaponry (thus, the power) and why others continued to subsist on stuff like sago pulp. I find his arguments quite compelling. I don't see him sidestepping any of the tough questions the issue raises; he meets them in a refreshingly direct manner. I'd consider it required reading for a good education in ancient history in any geographic area, because its theses are applicable to all. With so many people screaming either 'yay, a non-racist explanation!' or 'this is *so* PC', let me attempt to cut through that thicket for the potential reader. Yes, it is quite apparent that Diamond set out to come up with a non-racist explanation (as opposed to setting out to answer the question, prepared to accept the truth whether it bothered people or not). It does raise the question: had a racial explanation resulted, would he have put it forth? I think not. The effect of this is to make Diamond have to work harder to convince people of his conclusions, because he was certainly predisposed to a given tenet. This is too bad, because his conclusions are quite compelling. It would be shortsighted to dismiss his excellent work without hearing him out, though, even if one cannot quite shake the suspicion that he mainly wanted to prove that his hunter-gatherer friends in New Guinea were smarter than most people give them credit for. The other issue with the predisposition away from a racial explanation is that said predisposition is, itself, often racist, and Diamond does fall prey to this: just because Europeans ultimately developed napalm bombs, nuclear weapons and nerve gases, is that necessarily a positive? One could argue that it speaks well for the residents of ancient Africa, for example, that they never put any effort into learning how to incinerate an entire city or pollute the atmosphere with dioxins. One area of wasted effort was the photo section. He's got pictures in there of peoples from all over the world. Ok, fine, but what do the pictures illustrate? I guess if one has never seen a Spaniard or a Yanomano before, this'll help, but there is no use of the photos to support his perspective. Too bad--if the effort had been spent on diagrams and maps, Diamond could have used these pages to help make his point. Strongly recommended because the strength of the reasoning outweighs all else: no matter how he did it, Diamond's given us very good information.
Rating:
Summary: Great answer to a hard question!
Review: This book tries to answer a question which I am sure many of you have asked before, why did Europeans develop technology and conquer the world and other people didn't. He answers the question completely leaving no details out. His answer isn't a typical racist one which says the Europeans were genetically or culturally superior but that geography, climate and other natural elements prevented peoples who happened to be in one region from having the same natural advantages that people from Europe and the Fertile Cresent had. He organizes the book in four understandable parts. The first one dealing with an overview of human evolution and how we all started out the same but as we spread out the different regions gave some people disadvantages. The second part is about how people in the Fertile Cresent had an advantage over everyone in domesticatable mammals and grains and the third part is about how this food production lead to technology. The fourth part gives a whole overview of all the regions of the world and how each culture developed or didn't develop technology and the reasons for it. The prose style is this book is easy to read and but the subject matter for some people might get bored because sometimes there were long tangents where the original thesis isn't relavant. These tangents can also be a good thing because he goes on to talk about the histories of the different regions of the world. I recommend this book to anyone who ever asked the question, history happen the way it happened and someone who wants to learn about world cultures. I don't recommend this book someone who can't read informational books with a lot of data. Although there were some interesting stories at the beginning of each chapter most of it is just informational. I would also say that the reading level of this book is high school and above. Although it is easy to read, younger people might think the subject matter is boring and get distracted from all the information that is thrown at them. All in all this was a great book!
Rating: 
Summary: Eurocentric?
Review: I am not a professional historian, as the author is, but i found his book a bit eurocentric. He ignores important achievements of new world civilizations and focuses on the developments of early europeans civilizations in the fertile crescent. He seems to emphasiz the lack of european cultural tools in non-european cultures! Always, the european way seems to be better in his view. He never mentions the quipu, the Incan record keeping tool that may also have been used as a primitive form of "writing". He ignores the development of the boomerang in Australia, and downplays the great New World civilizations such as the Anasazi, the Inca, Tiwanaku, the Maya, Aztec, and many others. The book is a bit dated also-in the intro he discusses early man in the Americas and dismisses the evidence from Monte Verde, which has recently been supported by the discovery of other ancient early american remains such as the Spirit Cave remains, the infamous Kennewick man, and sites in argentina, and brazil of similar ages. Finally, rather than exploring the reasons why other cultures didnt develop civilizations like the europeans, why not discuss the directions of their civilizations? Given more time and less interaction with europeans, would the Cherokee, the Aztecs, the Tlingit, and many other groups headed for the same pattern as european cultures? What directions were their cultures heading when they came into contact with european invaders? I'd like to see a more indepth scientific discussion of this interesting topic rather than glossing over important details.
Rating:
Summary: A Wealth of Information
Review: After reading the first chapter, I had a feeling that this would be a very interesting book, and I was right. Guns, Germs, and Steel gives a very acurate and easily understandable history of the world, and why some cultures advanced faster than others. The book answered many questions I have had on human advancement. Once I picked it up, I could hardly put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Readable, educational, thought-provoking
Review: from the author of DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF: A PERSONAL APPROACH TO DREAM INTERPRETATION; and DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE. Diamond's overview of the many influences on the development of domestication of animals, agriculture, and the dominance of societies is informative as well as very readable. GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL exposed me to information and ideas that had never been addressed at all in my traditional education. Reading it with a world map next to me, I enjoyed the discovery of continents and islands that I wished to could see first hand. Stimulated by this subject, I went on to read books by Matt Ridley and Robert Wright. I highly recommend Jared Diamond's other books, too. I don't think he is trying to be PC. You can decide for yourself.
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Summary: An Education Unto Itself
Review: I agree with the positive reviews of this incredible book. "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is an education unto itself. Every college student should be required to read it. I think those readers whose previous reviews charge that this book is too PC read this book from the perspective of a personal agenda. I even suspect that they are academic rivals of Jared Diamond. I hope others answer Jared's challenge at the end of the book to expand upon the theories and data brought forth in this seminal text. It manages to answer at least half of those questions you've had in your mind that begin, "I wonder why..."
Rating:
Summary: Amazing and Edifying
Review: Dr. Diamond's book answering such a huge question of human anthropological history is well appreciated. A brilliantly crafted and very thorough examination of the reasons that we live in a Eurocentric world. A very satisfying and interesting read, and thoroughly thought provoking. My friends were subject for weeks to my chop-shop paraphrases of Diamond's fascinating theories. Buy this book if you are interested in anthropology or history or humanity.
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