Guns, Germs and Steel (English, Paperback, Diamond Jared)

Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History Of Everybody For The Last 13,000 Years is a book on history and political geography by Jared Diamond, which tries to unearth the truths and mysteries of the ancient human civilization and how the advancement process came into being.

Summary Of The Book

This book details that till about 11,000 B.C. the people living in the world were primarily of the Stone Age group. It was roughly at that point of time that a breaking off happened, which slowly led to the evolution of societies and groups. Gradually, people started getting involved in farming and rearing numerous plants and animals in parts of Eurasia and parts of the Americas. There was a gradual rise of planters and animal domesticators. It can be learnt from the book that the people who got rid of other race groups and resorted to measures like conquest, removal, and replacements are the ones who had advanced in the paths of becoming civilized and improved groups. The road which started from searching for food in random places and ended in proper organized living was greatly affected by the weather and the topography too. But, there remains the curiosity as to how the segregation occurred and how various cultures and traditions came into being.

It is also unclear why the Australians, Americans, or Africans did not rule over Europe. The author, Diamond, reveals that the various explanations about racial activities whose reasons are often traced back to cultural divisions are actually the reason of biological separations. He comes up with valuable instances and proofs that there was a relation between germs and living beings’ civilization and also goes on to discuss the ways in which germs got scattered in uncontrollable limits in the journey of civilization and advancement. This updated edition comprises a brand new chapter on Japan and also contains new illustrations and instances taken from the television series.

This book exceeds the materialistic boundaries like government, religion, technology, and agriculture, and delves deep into the undiscovered truths about the human advancement process.

About Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond is an American scientist and author, renowned for his academic textbooks related to science.

Apart from this book, he is renowned for authoring and co-authoring many other books, some of which are The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, and The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, & Biogeography.

Diamond was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He started his primary education at the Roxbury Latin School. After completing school, he went to study at Harvard University where he obtained his A.B. degree. Afterwards, he enrolled himself in the University of Cambridge and earned his PhD degree, majoring in physiology and membrane biophysics. After finishing his college education from Cambridge, he came back to Harvard, serving as a Junior Fellow. Afterwards, he was appointed the Professor of Physiology at UCLA Medical School. He got married to Marie Diamond and has two sons.