TOW #16 IRB Post "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond

I went into this book thinking that it was going to be about how the Europeans crushed and conquered the "less civilized" nations through guns, germs, and steel. To me, that was what the title of the book implied, but Guns, Germs, and Steel is about much more than muskets and conquistadors. It's about the differences in human civilizations all around the world and why things in human history happened a certain way. Through the use of pictures of people and an outline of numerous topics, Diamond argues that it is necessary to understand the people and societies of history and the world in order to further understand ourselves as humans and to further understand our futures.

One thing that really stands out in this book is its use of visual rhetoric that shows the human side of history and allows a better understanding of history than words can transfer. In sections of the book, Diamond inserts pictures of people. These people include a "Khoisan woman from the Kalahari Desert of Botswana", "Western European, former president Charles de Gaulle of France", "a Tingus woman from Siberia", and "Aboriginal Australians from Arnhem Land." The different faces, skincolor, facial structures, and attributes of all these people show a human side to history that is often left in most history textbooks and historical studies. Diamond uses these pictures to show that history is about the people in it and how they interacted to create the history we know today. He reminds us that it was people that developed this world and will continue to in the future.

Diamond also goes over many topics in the book, not just guns, germs, and steel as the title might suggest, in order to show the different aspects of history and the numerous reasons why history was shaped a certain way. Diamond talks about farming in "History's Haves and Have Nots" chapter, domestication in the "How to make an almond" chapter, writing systems in the "Blueprints and Borrowed Letters" chapter, and governmental systems in the "From Egalitarian to Kleptocracy chapter. By going over many topics, Diamond can prove that human civilizations are comprised of many different aspects. By knowing how these different elements created different societies, we can understand the differences in humans and our civilizations and better understand ourselves in our own unique societies and the path we are heading.

Our friend, Jared Diamond