Guns,Germs, and Steel | Summary

By Summary Station

Learn About The History Of World Power In A Fraction Of The Time It Takes To Read The Actual Book!!!

Diamond says that twenty-five years ago he met a politician in what is now Papua New Guinea, Yali, who asked why white people had so many things, but black people did not. The book attempts to provide answers to the question: Why have Eurasian people been the dominant wealth and power in the world? That is, why didn’t other cultures gain dominance before 1,500 CE? After all, until the end of the most recent Ice Age, circa 11,000 BCE, all humans were hunter-gatherers. So, what accounts for the different rates of development of societies between 11,000 BCE and 1500 CE? Those questions are the subject of the book.

The author says that finding reasons or causes for the unequal distribution of wealth and goods does not justify it. Diamond says we do not justify disease just because we understand its causes. He says that the foundations of European societies were developed in other part of the world, so the focus is not on aggrandizing Europe.

Here Is A Preview Of What You'll Learn When You Download Your Copy Today

•How Geography Determines The Structure Of Societies

•The Reason Why Europeans Were Able To Conquer Other Parts Of The World

•Learn Why The Belief About European People Being A Superior Race Is Wrong

• Language: English
• Publisher: Summary Station
• Release date: Nov 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370128181

Summary Station

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Summary of

Guns, Germs, and Steel

by Summary Station

Copyright © 2015 by Summary Station

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2015

Smashwords Edition

Table of Contents

Preface

Prologue

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Epilogue

Analysis

Thanks for Reading

About Summary Station

Preface to the Paperback Edition

The author says he aims to avoid biased historical accounts which focuses mainly on Europe. He says if other parts of the world are mentioned, it is only done after Europe dominated the area. Further, 99.9 percent of our history occurred prior to 3,000 Before the Common Era (BCE), before formal writing systems, but there is scant mention of this time period in history books. This causes, Diamond says, three main problems: (1) the focus does not satisfy the interests of determined scholars; (2) there were, by 3,000 BCE, developed civilizations in other parts of the world; (3) if the test focuses just on European society, the text fails to answer the big questions as to why the Eurasian societies flourished. After all, China was technologically superior to western Eurasia until about 1400 Common Era (CE). Instead, all societies need to be studied in order to fit Eurasia into the larger puzzle of human society. Diamond agrees with a reviewer that the history of society is rather like an onion with multiple, peel-able layers.

Prologue: Yali’s Question

Diamond says that twenty-five years ago he met a politician in what is now Papua New Guinea, Yali, who asked why white people had so many things, but black people did not. The book attempts to provide answers to the question: Why have Eurasian people been the dominant wealth and power in the world? That is, why didn’t other cultures gain dominance before 1,500 CE? After all, until the end of the most recent Ice Age, circa 11,000 BCE, all humans were hunter-gatherers. So, what accounts for the different rates of development of societies between 11,000 BCE and 1500 CE? Those questions are the subject of the book.

The author says that finding reasons or causes for the unequal distribution of wealth and goods does not justify it. Diamond says we do not justify disease just because we understand its causes. He says that the foundations of European societies were developed in other part of the world, so the focus is not on aggrandizing Europe.

Last, there is no value attached to complex society. That is, he does not assume that common European society is better than a hunter-gatherer society as each has advantages and disadvantages. Rather, the focus is on what happened, not in judging the outcome. The author says that at one time the answer was thought to be an uneven level of innate ability, either Darwinian or genetic. He says that he will show that people in primitive societies are intelligent.

Further, our intellectual abilities are altered by our childhood environments. IQ tests measure cultural intelligence. Thus, innate superiority of the white mind has

Reviews for Guns,Germs, and Steel | Summary

[James Noll · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a good summary of the book. Saved me the time it would have taken to read the whole book. Thank you.