52 Books, Week 4: Guns, Germs, and Steel

And, finally a classic. Guns, Germs, and Steel is one of the top 5 books I've read in my life. Period (thanks rosy). As an armchair social theorist, this book was like a wonderland. If you're interested in history, critical social theory, the environment, sociology, racial identity theory, political science, agricultural politics, or pretty much anything else, then this book is for you. In a very intellectually honest, even-handed, easy-going way, Diamond deftly creates a framework for human history (exactly, that's why its top 5). The books thesis can be summed up pretty concisely:

"History followed different courses for different people because of differences among people's environments, not because of biological differences between the people themselves"

The argument centers on the realization that based on environmental circumstances in which people were assigned to , populations (and human societies) developed in direct correlation to their circumstances. This includes their proximity to domesticable animals, plants that were suitable for agriculture, other societies that spurred their development, and other assorted primary factors.

The ability to domesticate animals becomes of incredible consequence, because cattle become a pseudo germ laboratory, which incubate diseases like the black plague, and other nasties that help to decimate indigenous populations (ask the Native Americans). The Tolstoy quote, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," is mentioned in the text. Diamond (and Tolstoy) means that, in order to be happy, a marriage must succeed in many different respects: sexual attraction, agreement about money, child discipline, religion, in-laws and other vital issues. Failure in any one of those essential respects can doom a marriage even if it has all the other ingredients needed for happiness. Evidentially, animal husbandry works the same way. To be domesticated, a candidate wild species must possess characteristics related to diet; growth rate; problems of captive breeding; disposition; and tendency to panic. As Diamond says, "only a small percentage of wild mammal species ended up in happy marriages with humans, by virtue of compatibility on all those separate counts." There are 5 major animals that have provided the majority of our animal needs (sheep, goat, cow, pig, and horse). And suprisingly enough, they all occurred in the wild in Europe and Asia (sorry Africa, Antartica, North America, and South America). The section on plants is also similarly interesting.

There seem to be a couple holes (particularly the part describing the stunted development of China in contemporary history) that ring a little hollow. But any book that can concisely describe why we don't eat zebra meat, is alright with me