Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

Summary edit see section history

People edit see section history

• Atahualpa: The last Inca Emperor before the Spanish conquest of the empire.
• Pizarro: Spanish conquistador who explored South America and destroyed the Incan empire.

Quotes edit see section history

• “We all know that history has proceeded very differently for peoples from different parts of the globe. In the 13,000 years since the end of the last Ice Age, some parts of the world developed literate industrial societies with metal tools, other parts developed only nonliterate farming societies, and still others retained societies, and still others retained societies of hunter-gathers with stone tools. Those historical inequalities have cast long shadows on the modern world, because the literate societies with metal tools have conquered or exterminated the other societies. While those differences constitute the most basic fact of world history, the reasons for them remain uncertain and controversial. This puzzling question of their origins was posed to me 25 years ago in a simple, personal form.”

  Author

• “In July 1972 I was walking along a beach on the tropical island of New Guinea, where as a biologist I study bird evolution. I had already heard about a remarkable local politician named Yali, who was touring the district then. By chance, Yali and I were walking in the same direction on that day, and he overtook me. We walked together for an hour, talking during the whole time.”

  Author

• “Yali radiated charisma and energy. His eyes flashed in a mesmerizing way. He talked confidently about himself, but he also asked lots of probing questions and listened intently. Our conversation began with a subject then on every New Guinean’s mind—the rapid pace of political developments. Papua New Guinea, as Yali’s nation is now called, was at that time still administered by Australia, as a mandate of the United Nations, but independence was in the air. Yali explained to me his role in getting local people to prepare for self-government.”

  Author

• “After a while, Yali turned the conversation and began to quiz me. He had never been outside New Guinea, and had not been educated beyond high school, but his curiosity was insatiable. First, he wanted to know about my work on New Guinea birds (including how much I got paid for it). I explained to him how different groups of birds had colonized New Guinea over the last tens of thousands of years, and how white Europeans had colonized New Guinea within the last 200 years.”

  Author

• “The conversation remained friendly, even though the tension between the two societies that Yali and I represented was familiar to both of us. Two centuries ago, all New Guineans were still “living in the Stone Age.” That is, they still used stone tools similar to those superseded in Europe by metal tools thousands of years ago, and they dwelt in villages not organized under any centralized political authority. Whites had arrived, imposed centralized government, and brought material goods whose value New Guineans instantly recognized, ranging from steel axes, matches, and medicines to clothing, soft drinks, and umbrellas. In New Guinea all these goods were referred to collectively as “cargo.””

  Author

• “Many of the white colonialists openly despised New Guineans as “primitive.” Even the least able of New Guinea’s white “masters,” as they were still called in 1972, enjoyed a far higher standard of living than New Guineans, higher even than charismatic politicians like Yali. Yet Yali had quizzed lots of whites as he was then quizzing me, and I had quizzed lots of New Guineans. He and I both knew perfectly well that New Guineans are on the average at least as smart as Europeans. All those things must have been on Yali’s mind when, with yet another penetrating glance of his flashing eyes, he asked me, “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?””

  Author

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves.”

  Highlighted by 431 Kindle customers

• why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents?

  Highlighted by 291 Kindle customers

• “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”

  Highlighted by 252 Kindle customers

• Human history at last took off around 50,000 years ago, at the time of what I have termed our Great Leap Forward.

  Highlighted by 249 Kindle customers

• Immediate reasons for Pizarro’s success included military technology based on guns, steel weapons, and horses; infectious diseases endemic in Eurasia; European maritime technology; the centralized political organization of European states; and writing.

  Highlighted by 231 Kindle customers

• Contributing to these differences among Polynesian societies were at least six sets of environmental variables among Polynesian islands: island climate, geological type, marine resources, area, terrain fragmentation, and isolation.

  Highlighted by 206 Kindle customers

• That is, natural selection promoting genes for intelligence has probably been far more ruthless in New Guinea than in more densely populated, politically complex societies, where natural selection for body chemistry was instead more potent.

  Highlighted by 193 Kindle customers

• Sound evidence for the existence of human differences in intelligence that parallel human differences in technology is lacking.

  Highlighted by 182 Kindle customers

• Neanderthals had brains slightly larger than our own. They were also the first humans to leave behind strong evidence of burying their dead and caring for their sick.

  Highlighted by 176 Kindle customers

• why were Europeans, rather than Africans or Native Americans, the ones to end up with guns, the nastiest germs, and steel?

  Highlighted by 173 Kindle customers

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Jared Diamond (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Doug Ordunio (Narrator) - Unabridged
2. Grover Gardner (Narrator) - Abridged

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Pulitzer Prize (1998: General Nonfiction)
• Aventis Prize (1998: Best Science Book)
• Royal Society's Rhône-Poulenc Prize (1998: Science)
• Phi Beta Kappa Award (1997: Science)
• Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books (1998: General Prize)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: HM206 .D48 1997
• Dewey: 303.4

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Nonfiction › Social Sciences › Anthropology › Cultural
• Books › History › Ancient › Early Civilization
• Books › Nonfiction › Social Sciences › Human Geography
• Books › Science › History & Philosophy › History of Science
• Books › Science › Evolution
• Books › History › Military

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Guns, Germs, and Steel: PBS

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history