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Guns, Germs and Steel
- The Fate of Human Societies
- Narrated by: Doug Ordunio
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
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Collapse
- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- Written by: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization. Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted.
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Ought to be a textbook
- By Derek on 2020-04-25
Written by: Jared Diamond
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Sapiens
- A Brief History of Humankind
- Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In Sapiens, Dr. Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical — and sometimes devastating — breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, palaeontology, and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities.
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I've learned so much from this book!
- By Amazon Customer on 2017-09-17
Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
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Homo Deus
- A Brief History of Tomorrow
- Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams, and nightmares that will shape the 21st century - from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus.
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Accept minor defects and enjoy this book
- By Reza on 2017-12-10
Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
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The Third Chimpanzee
- The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
- Written by: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet - having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art - while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins?
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Sadly Dated
- By CKH Vancouver on 2022-09-28
Written by: Jared Diamond
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
- Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Yuval Noah Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today’s most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive.
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dreadful ramble with no useful solutions
- By Lara on 2018-10-06
Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
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The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
- Mapping the Collapse of Globalization
- Written by: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days—even hours—of when you decided you wanted it. America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going. Peter Zeihan maps out the next world: a world where countries or regions will have no choice but to make their own goods, grow their own food, secure their own energy, fight their own battles, and do it all with populations that are both shrinking and aging.
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A good view of the long-term geopolitical impact
- By Ashish Kumar on 2022-07-21
Written by: Peter Zeihan
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Collapse
- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
- Written by: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization. Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted.
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Ought to be a textbook
- By Derek on 2020-04-25
Written by: Jared Diamond
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Sapiens
- A Brief History of Humankind
- Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In Sapiens, Dr. Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical — and sometimes devastating — breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural, and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, palaeontology, and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities.
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I've learned so much from this book!
- By Amazon Customer on 2017-09-17
Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
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Homo Deus
- A Brief History of Tomorrow
- Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams, and nightmares that will shape the 21st century - from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus.
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Accept minor defects and enjoy this book
- By Reza on 2017-12-10
Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
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The Third Chimpanzee
- The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
- Written by: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet - having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art - while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins?
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Sadly Dated
- By CKH Vancouver on 2022-09-28
Written by: Jared Diamond
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
- Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Yuval Noah Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today’s most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive.
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dreadful ramble with no useful solutions
- By Lara on 2018-10-06
Written by: Yuval Noah Harari
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The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
- Mapping the Collapse of Globalization
- Written by: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days—even hours—of when you decided you wanted it. America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going. Peter Zeihan maps out the next world: a world where countries or regions will have no choice but to make their own goods, grow their own food, secure their own energy, fight their own battles, and do it all with populations that are both shrinking and aging.
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A good view of the long-term geopolitical impact
- By Ashish Kumar on 2022-07-21
Written by: Peter Zeihan
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
- Written by: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Abridged
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A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson’s quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. His challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. It's not so much about what we know, as about how we know what we know.
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Abridged
- By Robin on 2017-11-29
Written by: Bill Bryson
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The History of the Ancient World
- From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome
- Written by: Susan Wise Bauer
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the first volume in a bold new series that tells the stories of all peoples, connecting historical events from Europe to the Middle East to the far coast of China, while still giving weight to the characteristics of each country. Susan Wise Bauer provides both sweeping scope and vivid attention to the individual lives that give flesh to abstract assertions about human history. This narrative history employs the methods of "history from beneath" - literature, epic traditions, private letters, and accounts - to connect kings and leaders with the lives of those they ruled.
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Iffy narration, abrupt ending
- By Micah Clark on 2020-09-07
Written by: Susan Wise Bauer
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The Silk Roads
- A New History of the World
- Written by: Peter Frankopan
- Narrated by: Laurence Kennedy
- Length: 24 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures, and religions. From the rise and fall of empires to the spread of Buddhism and the advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to the great wars of the 20th century - this book shows how the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East.
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Epic Telling of History
- By chris bahrey on 2021-11-22
Written by: Peter Frankopan
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Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- Written by: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
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Great story, annoying music
- By Rob Smith on 2020-07-18
Written by: Jack Weatherford
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The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
- A History of Nazi Germany
- Written by: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 57 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the 20th century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.
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The most extensive book I have ever listened too!
- By Canadian Dad on 2019-04-26
Written by: William L. Shirer
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The Bomber Mafia
- A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times best sellers including Talking to Strangers and host of the podcast Revisionist History, uses original interviews, archival footage, and his trademark insight to weave together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in Central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard. As listeners hear these stories unfurl, Gladwell examines one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.
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Amazing!
- By Spinningwheelgirl on 2021-04-30
Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
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Upheaval
- Turning Points for Nations in Crisis
- Written by: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In his earlier best sellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in the final audiobook in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crisis through selective change - a coping mechanism more commonly associated with personal trauma.
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Good, but long and a bit contradictory
- By Gareth on 2023-02-24
Written by: Jared Diamond
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Mythos
- Written by: Stephen Fry
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Here are the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths, stylishly retold by Stephen Fry. The legendary writer, actor, and comedian breathes life into ancient tales, from Pandora's box to Prometheus's fire, and transforms the adventures of Zeus and the Olympians into emotionally resonant and deeply funny stories, without losing any of their original wonder. Learned notes from the author offer rich cultural context. This volume is a doorway into a captivating world.
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Amazing
- By Kindle Customer on 2019-10-04
Written by: Stephen Fry
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Disunited Nations
- The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World
- Written by: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan, Roy Worley
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In Disunited Nations, geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan presents a series of counterintuitive arguments about the future of a world where trade agreements are coming apart and international institutions are losing their power. Germany will decline as the most powerful country in Europe, with France taking its place. Every country should prepare for the collapse of China, not North Korea. We are already seeing, as Zeihan predicts, a shift in outlook on the Middle East: it is no longer Iran that is the region’s most dangerous threat, but Saudi Arabia.
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Eye opener
- By Muzik on 2020-07-29
Written by: Peter Zeihan
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The Accidental Superpower
- The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder
- Written by: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Accidental Superpower, international strategist Peter Zeihan examines how geography, combined with demography and energy independence, will pave the way for one of the great turning points in history, and one in which America reasserts its global dominance. No other country has a greater network of internal waterways, a greater command of deepwater navigation, or a firmer hold on industrialization technologies than America.
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Fun Read!
- By hellbentforleather on 2020-12-23
Written by: Peter Zeihan
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The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
- An Experiment in Literary Investigation
- Written by: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
- Narrated by: Ignat Solzhenitsyn
- Length: 21 hrs and 53 mins
- Abridged
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The Nobel Prize winner’s towering masterpiece of world literature, the searing record of four decades of terror and oppression, in one abridged volume (authorized by the author). Features a new foreword by Anne Applebaum.
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Important context, narrator lacks flow
- By Amazon Customer on 2020-11-13
Written by: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
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The Absent Superpower
- The Shale Revolution and a World Without America
- Written by: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Toby Sheets
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2014's The Accidental Superpower, geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan made the case that geographic, demographic, and energy trends were unravelling the global system. Zeihan takes the story a step further in The Absent Superpower, mapping out the threats and opportunities as the world descends into disorder.
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Detailed and interesting!
- By Jennifer Gillingham on 2020-02-25
Written by: Peter Zeihan
Publisher's Summary
Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 1998
Guns, Germs and Steel examines the rise of civilization and the issues its development has raised throughout history.
Having done field work in New Guinea for more than 30 years, Jared Diamond presents the geographical and ecological factors that have shaped the modern world. From the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist, he highlights the broadest movements both literal and conceptual on every continent since the Ice Age, and examines societal advances such as writing, religion, government, and technology. Diamond also dissects racial theories of global history, and the resulting work—Guns, Germs and Steel—is a major contribution to our understanding the evolution of human societies.
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Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Myself
- 2019-03-13
So painfully blah!
Save your time and your credit. There's some good info but there are more interesting books to get it from.
Imagine asking someone how their pizza was. "Hot gooey cheese with a sweet yet tangy sauce. The dough was light with a nice crust to it. Nothing but the freshest toppings.....etc." That would be descriptive, interesting and informative. This book's answer would be something more like "There was dough. Dough is made with multiple ingredients, one of them being flour. Now in this case it was bleached flour, it differs from its unbleached counterpart. There are many types of flour, each with its own purpose. Water was added to the flour. Water in most cases today is filtered before human consumption....blah blah blah."
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13 people found this helpful
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- TK
- 2018-05-18
A must!
You aren't a junior historian without it. The narration is clear and digestible, albeit best at 1.1x or 1.2x speed.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Julie
- 2019-10-08
Boring yet thought provoking
While I found some of the information and theories in this book fairly thought provoking, I also found that it drones and drones and my mind often wandered as I listened. A nail biter this is not.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Corbin Smith
- 2019-10-29
Great at what it does but read critiques as well
It is a good book written with good narrative and great narration. This book is heavily criticized in academic circles and while I think the book is still worth reading, one should understand that it is too simplistic and too narrowly focused on this specific element of history to be taken entirely at face value.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Yousuf J.
- 2019-10-10
Provides core thesis with many examples.
core concepts were easy to grasp. author provided many examples and summarised after every few chapters.
if you already have a background in evolutionary biology, you can probably skip the first few chapters.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Patricia G.
- 2019-04-15
This book did not live up to its reputation.
It was recommended by a number of friends and I thought that my love of history would make it a perfect match. If I had been reading it instead of listening, I would never have finished it. Boring is too subtle a word to describe this book. At least the narrator tried to make it more interesting, kudos for him for not yawning.(probably were cut out!)
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3 people found this helpful
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- Karen
- 2019-11-23
Worth the read
I finally read this masterpiece! It was worth every Pulitzer Prize winning minute. Jared Diamond provides a strong theory for how geography created the circumstances leading to the advancement of some populations over others over time. The move from hunter-gatherer to farmers with domesticated crops and animals, the creation of societies and then language and technology... all of it basically depended on which latitude humans, plants and animals evolved in. A fascinating theory and I think it holds up well.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Witzy
- 2020-07-13
Starts and ends well, tedious middle.
Obviously an important book and topics that are given careful, if at times tedious treatment. If you just read/listen to first and last chapters, you get a pretty good synthesis. The narration is fine and clear, but all the extensive details become a bit boring, and the narrator is unable to make these details particularly interesting to the typical listener.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2019-10-22
Good read, very interesting!
My only complaint is that the thesis gets a little repetitive by the end.
Otherwise it's a well read, well researched book with plenty of interesting insight!
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1 person found this helpful
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- 101
- 2019-08-22
This is not a history book
This book is flawed in a number of ways that I don't care to get into, though it is an entertaining read, I'd take it in its entirety with a huge helping of salt. Also Jared Diamond is not a historian..................
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1 person found this helpful
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- Doug
- 2011-08-25
Compelling pre-history and emergent history
This is a fascinating and foundational work that takes a topic (for me) shrouded in obscurity (how and why did civilization emerge in the pattern it did around the globe), and provides a vivid, detailed, and substantially convincing explanation. Thanks to GGS, I see world and cultural history with new eyes. That is pretty much the highest praise I can think of for a book.
I have a personal policy of ignoring (or at least trying to ignore) negative narrator reviews, as I find them always overstated. This reading is on the dry/flat/dull side, but it is still professional. The book is great and one of the most stimulating I have ever listened to. It is dense, but if you don't like fact, analysis, and theory, you wouldn't seek out this sort of book. Extremely highly recommended. It will change the way you see the world.
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111 people found this helpful
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- Jeremy
- 2011-02-16
Informing, Interesting, and Boring all in one
His point of view is compelling, and gives definite weight to the view that all men are created equal, and 'Whites' for example aren't 'better' than anyone else, but that they had a better deck of cards than other peoples and cultures at a time when it mattered. I have heard others talk on the same issues and topics and make it much more engaging however. And while he titles the book "Guns, germs and steel", given what takes up the majority of the book it should be titled, "Grains, Vegetables and Domestic-able animals".
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111 people found this helpful
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- Daniel
- 2011-12-19
A story all should know, not all can endure
What a wealth of information! So amazing to think about the inevitabilities and chance occurrences that shaped our world. I wish I could recommend this book to all since it should be standard reading(listening). The down side is that its a bit of an endurance challenge to get through. There are a lot of numbers lists and .. vocally read charts. I doubt most could make it through this entire book. An abridged version might be more digestible.
Regardless, give it a try. You'll think about the world in a completely different way. But take your time, or else you'll burn out on this anvil of a book.
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95 people found this helpful
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- Steven
- 2011-11-19
So much potential, so little craft
With all the field work and research available to him Diamond stands at the brink of what could be the most fascinating and significant popular science book of the era. He brings together so many disciplines to show macro trends, chaos theory, the power of germs in fashioning human history. It could all havee been absolutely mind changing. Sadly Diamond is not Bill Bryson. He has a scientific mind and a scientific compulsion for being comprehensive. Where Bryson can spin a story out of a proton, Diamond gets mired in a repetitive catalogue of insights applied meticulously yet tediously to every possible place, time and civilisation. I would really love someone else to re-tell this - someone who has the ability to convert the linear into the prosaic. I gave up after about 50%.
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77 people found this helpful
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- Nick M.
- 2016-03-27
Great book, poor narration
This is a great and thought provoking book, just what I've come to appreciate and expect from Jared Diamond.
Unfortunately, the narration is so dull it makes it incredibly difficult to keep engaged with the story. His voice is monotone and devoid of meaningful inflections, and throaty, I keep waiting for him to clear his throat, it turns this in to a very dry listen. Significantly reduces my enjoyment of this incredible book.
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66 people found this helpful
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- Darwin8u
- 2015-09-01
Location, location, location...
“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.”
- Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel
This is one of those books that once you finish, you sit back and say "yeah, um, duh". Since I'm reading this about 18 years after it was first published and probably 14 years since I bought and first perused it, it never seemed very shocking to me. Look, certain civilizations came to dominate based on a couple random, accidental, and nonracially based situations that combined to give the Eurasian people a slight advantage once these civilizations came into contact with each other.
First, the domesticated food and animals of Eurasiaa contained more protein and more varieties of domesticated animals (pigs, cows, goats, etc) that allowed the people on the Eurasian continent to achieve a certain population density that allowed them to move from band > tribe > chiefdom > state > empire first. This density also allowed for more technological advances, more exposure and protection against herd diseases, so that when cultures collided, the more advanced societies were able to dominate. End of book. Q.E.D.
Is it still worth reading? Certainly. Just because you get the basic premise of Natural Selection does not mean you shouldn't read Darwin's classics. I'm to going to compare Jared Diamond to Charles Darwin. This book isn't that good, but the apparent simplicity of the book's premise only appears simple. The argument that Diamond delivers is tight and simple but hides a lot of work.
** Just a note. This audiobook does NOT include the newer edition's chapter on Japan or the 2003 author's Afterword.
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60 people found this helpful
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- Jimmy Mak
- 2016-02-02
Poor preformance
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
Unfortunately the narrator was completely unable to capture the drama of this book. I read it shortly after it came out in hardback and lent my copy one too many times so I was excited to read it again. This was not the experience I hoped for.
What other book might you compare Guns, Germs and Steel to and why?
Kon Tiki, Rapa Nui. Similar cultures.
What didn’t you like about Doug Ordunio’s performance?
You get the feeling he isn't hearing the words that he is saying.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
I do love this book. The ease with which the author relays his information is astounding. When on paper the pages fly by, when narrated it's like setting through a lecture. Such a shame that this book was presented by someone as disinterested as Doug Ordunio.
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47 people found this helpful
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- firstrich1
- 2015-09-22
interesting but dry
I had some difficulty staying focused on the subjects due to the fact that the narrator was a bit on the side of sleep inducing. A soothing voice but dry in the reading, often coming across as methodical and like a recitation of facts. Much of the information is interesting but it was hard to stay focused. I think I got about 50% of what the author was saying just due to the dry expression of the narrator.
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31 people found this helpful
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- 'Nathan
- 2014-09-01
Dreadful presentation
Any joy that might have been found in the knowledge of this audiobook was completely removed by the performance. My husband and I enjoy listening to nonfiction while we take long car rides, and we had a five hour trip to New York State coming up, and nabbed this title. We barely made it an hour before he asked me to pick something else to play, since the dull monotonous performance was actually making him tired at the wheel.
It's unfortunate. The information is interesting, and though the author is perhaps a bit dry and academic in his delivery, it could have been presented much better by someone with a more engaging range of voice. It took a very long time to struggle our way through this one, in tiny bites, and I often found myself drifting away from it, completely disengaged from the uninspiring performance.
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26 people found this helpful
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- Neil Chisholm
- 2013-03-26
Anthropology? Compelling? This book is!
The Fates of Human Societies is the subheading of this book and it grabbed me. I've recently listened to histories of several societies and I thought this might be interesting in doing some comparisons. What I wasn't ready for was a gallop through the history of man from our first bands of hunter gatherers wandering out of Africa to detailed explanations of why Eurasia was by its geography destined to be more successful than either the Americas and Africa.
If you had told me I was going to be left gaping by linguistic analysis, natural experiments or the result of reviews by evolutionary biologists I wouldn't have believed you but I am agog as what I've heard and the implications it has meant for all the histories of different societies.
I am still digesting what I've heard and I know I shall be back to listen to parts if not all of it again. This book is highly recommended if you want to know why Eurasia came to dominate the world and to understand early civilisations destinies from their geography and biology. It really is compelling listening.
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21 people found this helpful
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- Pierre Gauthier
- 2017-10-29
Momentous!
In a nutshell, in this fascinating work, the author Jared Diamond sets out to explain why, in the 16th century, the Spaniards conquered Mexico and the Aztecs did not invade Spain.
He is adamant that any potential racial differences have nothing to do with it and explains that geography and the distribution of domesticable plants and animals are the key to understanding the unequal speed of development in various parts of the world throughout history.
Despite a few repetitions and an insistence on Papua-New Guinea that is only justified with his long personal presence there, his style is engaging and crystal clear.
This very enlightening offering is not at all dated and highly advisable to all interested in long term historical trends.
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4 people found this helpful
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- LACHARV
- 2022-02-11
Very interesting book about human history
This book is a long and detailed description with vivid explanations about the reasons why humans groups have developed separately.
Very clever !
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