An Analysis of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies Paperback – 4 July 2017
Riley Quinn . Macat Library . English
In his 1997 work Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond marshals evidence from five continents and across 13,000 years of human history in an attempt to answer the question of why that history unfolded so differently in various parts of the globe. His results offer new explanations for why the unequal divisions of power and wealth so familiar to us today came into existence – and have persisted. Balancing materials drawn from a vast range of sources, addressing core problems that have fascinated historians, anthropologists, biologists and geographers alike – and blending his analysis to create a compelling narrative that became an international best-seller and reached a broad general market – required a mastery of the critical thinking skill of reasoning that few other scholars can rival. Diamond’s reasoning skills allow him to persuade his readers of the value of his interdisciplinary approach and produce well-structured arguments that keep them turning pages even as he refocuses his analysis from one disparate example to another. Diamond adds to that a spectacular ability to grasp the meaning of the available evidence produced by scholars in those widely different disciplines – making Guns, Germs and Steel equally valuable as an exercise in high-level interpretation.
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About the Author
I am a recent transplant from the central Texas area to Northern Bavaria Germany. I live there with my wonderful, supportive husband and my crazy, attention-loving dog. My mother got me hooked on books at a young age with Nancy Drew and I haven't looked back. In high school, I devoured romance books and even wrote one (okay, I admit it, I never finished it). Since then, my reading tastes have varied, from mystery to paranormal back to romance. I am an admitted mood reader and can have several books going at one time. I've always had the dream to write. The idea of being an author brewed in the back of my mind for years and the voices of characters dying to tell their stories haunted me at all hours of the day and night. In March 2008, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop given by one of my favorite authors, M.R. Sellars. I got a lot of great information that evening but the biggest point that stayed with me was that I needed to actually write. Can you believe it? All this time, I'd been playing at writing. It was a hobby. Well no more. From that moment on, I decided that I was a writer. I joined the Romance Writers of America (RWA) and then the Austin chapter. I attended workshops, read craft books, networked with other authors and really worked to hone my craft. I still have plenty of work to do but the most important thing I'm doing is - you guessed it - writing.
