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Guns, Germs, and Steel

The Fates of Human Societies

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Guns, Germs, and Steel

Written by: Jared Diamond
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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About this listen

Pulitzer Prize Winner, General Nonfiction, 1998

In this groundbreaking work, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns. It is a story that spans 13,000 years of human history, beginning when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Guns, Germs, and Steel is a world history that really is a history of all the world's peoples, a unified narrative of human life.

©1997 Jared Diamond (P)2001 HighBridge Company Anthropology Biological Sciences Education Science Social Sciences World Africa Latin America Imperialism Ancient History China

What the critics say

"The scope and explanatory power of this book are astounding." (The New Yorker)

"Guns, Germs, and Steel is an artful, informative, and delightful book....There is nothing like a radically new angle of vision for bringing out unsuspected dimensions of a subject." (The New York Review of Books)
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Most relevant
i found the book to be well written and read. the topics discussed, while complex, are explained in a manner that is accessible without being diluted. a must read for anyone studying evolutionary biology or social sciences.

Excellent listen.

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This was pretty interesting. I’m not sure why it’s called Guns Germs and Steel when the vast majority of it seemed to be about domesticating plants and animals.

Overall it had lots of good nuggets and things to ponder. My main critique is that it’s pretty woke and takes all personal responsibility or agency off the people who inhabited underdeveloped areas.

I think it’s reasonable to describe the factors that were out of their hands while still exploring why they personally were unable to modernize like Europeans were.

Solid History of Domestication

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Amazing amazing amazing book. Most insightful and interesting human history ever written!!

I'm just disappointed I didnt have knowledge about this book earlier

love it

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Fine, but not too much extra from the 3 part PBS mini-series. I think the mini-series was a bit better.

Watch the video

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A good abridgement of the full work. A few bits are slightly dated, but it was well worth the download.

Well narrated

informative, interesting

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