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Diamond's earlier book, The Third Chimpanzee, was a series of illuminating, interrelated essays about man, viewed as "just another species of big mammal." He touched upon such subjects as "The Science of Adultery," "How We Pick Our Mates and Sex Partners," "Why Do We Grow Old and Die," "Why Do We Smoke, Drink, and Use Dangerous Drugs?" with wit and scientific authority. As he looks at the three-million year history of man, he tries to make sense of it all, and to find grounds for optimism, despite the two ominous clouds on the horizon -- nuclear holocaust and environmental holocaust. It's a bold and informative book, that is very entertaining, while daring to uncover lessons that might help save mankind from itself. We hear the voice of a scientist speaking the language of the layman, with skill and style, trying to spread important insights to the general public because salvation depends on general understanding and cooperation in dealing with the serious issues that face us today.
Guns, Germs, and Steel has a much clearer focus, seeking and convincingly providing the answer to the question "why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents?" In other words, why did Columbus discover America and Pizarro conquer the Incas rather than the Inca "discovering" and conquering Europe? Why did Europe colonize Africa instead of vice versa? And he isn't satisfied with simply considering the immediate causes -- "guns, germs, and steel" -- but rather pushes back in time 13,000 years trying to determine why it was that Europe and not the Incas had the guns, germs, and steel.
His approach is scientific, with a bent toward Darwinian biological explanations. He is not interested in the minutiae of historical accident, but rather the broad sweep of history. And his inquiry into this one question leads to one fascinating insight after another.
The direction of the inquiry in some ways resembles that of David Quammen's The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions. That book dealt with the question of why some species become extinct, and along the way relates intriguing tales from the history of science, and acquaints us with the biological diversity that arises from isolation of some animals on islands of varying sizes, and their precarious fates when the territory is too small. The island of Madagascar gets particularly close scrutiny. Quammen succeeds in clearly explaining a previously obscure branch of biology, and hammering home its importance not just for understanding why some species are "endangered," but also for understanding the interdependence of species, understanding that the extinction of species threatens to unravel the Persian-rug tapestry of life on this planet -- that the possible extinction of mankind is at issue.
Geography -- in particular, islands like Madagascar and New Guinea -- plays a very important role in Guns, Germs, and Steel as well. The extensive East-West orientation of the Eurasian landmass, as opposed to the North-South orientation of Africa and the America proves to be the crucial determining factor in the fate of man. By the time he has laid out all the evidence, his conclusions -- which before would never have occurred to you -- seem patently obvious. "That demographic shift of the last 500 years [from Europe to the Americas] ... has its ultimate roots in developments between 11,000 BC and AD 1." (p. 375) "In short, Europe's colonization of Africa had nothing to do with differences between European and African peoples themselves, as white racists assume. Rather, it was due to accidents of geography and biogeography -- in particular, to the continents' different areas, axes, and suites of wild plant and animal species. That is, the different historical trajectories of Africa and Europe stem ultimately from differences in real estate." (pp. 400-401) "... some environments provide more starting materials, and more favorable conditions for ultilizing inventions, than do other environments." (p. 408) Basically, food production is essential to the growth of large concentrations of population, to the rise of states and the consequent rise of writing and technology, and food production ultimately depends on biology and evolution and related geographic considerations; hence the science of biology can provide insights into the course of human history and ultimate destiny of man. At the same time, domestication of large mammals for food and work and warfare plays an important role in history and at the same time leads to the passing of animal-borne diseases to man, leading to differences from one continent to another in exposure and immunity to those diseases, which, too, plays an important role in history -- with diseases from Europe decimating the native populations of the Americas and also of Australia. (The historical role of germs as an unintended but very effective weapon calls to mind their role as the defenders of planet Earth against alien species in H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds.)
In passing, Diamond ponders the intriguing question of what role, if any, "Great Men" have in shaping the direction of history: "Perhaps Alexander the Great did nudge the course of western Eurasia's alrady literate, food-producing, iron-equipped states, but he had nothing to do with the fact that western Eurasia already supported literate, food-producing, iron-equipped states at a time when Australia still supported only non-literate hunter-gatherer tribes lacking metal tools." ( p. 420)
Dealing with all of human history, worldwide, in very broad strokes, Guns, Germs, and Steel focuses on what really matters: geography, food production, diet, domestication of mammals: all the stuff that traditional history courses ignore.
All in all, this is an extraordinary book -- bringing together biology, anthropology, and history, providing extraordinary insight into human destiny over the last 13,000 years.
If you have time to read only one book this year, make it this one.
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