Guns, Germs and Steel- An interesting perspective on human development

In “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, Jared Diamond attempts to provide an alternative explanation of historical milestones that would eventually shape the way the world works today. Diamond’s motive for writing the book is to answer the question, “Why did history unfold differently on different continents?” From the beginning of the book he warns that he is not trying to explain racial differences that would have affected the development of civilizations. Instead he finds and analyzes the oldest possible human milestones as a starting point to account for the development of the continents. These milestones include but are not limited to the development of writing, plant and animal domestication, the use of technology, and governmental structure. Diamond holds that environmental factors and the needs of societies are responsible for the varying developments seen across the continents.

Unlike other books that attempt for explain the progression of civilizations, “Guns, Germs, and Steel” does not pose racist causes and it is not Eurocentric in content. Instead, Diamond gives a concentrated version of every civilization for the past 13,000 years. His motive is truly to gain an understanding of the environmental factors that led to the developmental divergence of civilizations. I reccomend the book to anyone seeking to find an understanding of the way the societies of the world work and the underlying reasons for this intricate development.