Guns, Germs, and Steel

Guns, Germs, and Steel had sat on my bookshelf for a few years before I finally read it this week. I can't imagine the amount of work it took to even add "and __" to a data-loaded sentence or the knowledge he had accumulated in order to assemble the information into a coherent theory, but equally amazing is his ability to write academia into a bestseller.

I thought of his explanation of "Why Europe, Not China?" was pretty good. The usual thought is Confucianism politeness limiting China's response to other country's aggression or development--which is not true, as Chinese considered foreigners as barbarians and does not hesitate to protect themselves from the constant threat of Mongol invasion and state uprisings threatening to bring in a new dynasty. But the most ridiculous theory was about Chinese characters placing limitations on inventiveness and concept creation (as opposed to alphabets, which could be rearranged to form new meanings and be adapted to different country's needs, the author claimed). But Chinese has gone through slight evolution, as seen in comparisons between modern Chinese to Japanese and Korean, which used Chinese exported thousands of years ago. And anyway, Chinese was one of the most inventive countries in history. All the way up until 1400s, that is, when centralized government took to isolationism and departed from technological advances. So in this "Not China" aspect, I agree with Diamond.

The most interesting parts of the book, though, were the last two chapters, the Epilogue and the GGS Today. It's intriguing to think how his theories in GGS would apply to business structure and would continue to modify current government powers.

Critics of his book say it's about environmental determinism, and I do think lumping everything together into a general theory is simplifying matters and may cover true causes, but it's pretty good as a overarching theory to span human history for 13,000 years. Plus it's a popular book, so that means the populace will think about these issues. To spark controversy and bring debate into the public forefront is a good quality that will create better social awareness and open-mindedness.