 Cover of the first edition, featuring the painting Pizarro Seizing the Inca of Peru by John Everett Millais | |
| Author | Jared Diamond |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Environmental history, geography, history, social evolution, ethnology, cultural diffusion |
| Genre | Nonfiction |
| Published | 1997 (W. W. Norton) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback), audio CD, audio cassette, audio download |
| Pages | 480 pages (1st edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0-393-03891-2 (1st edition, hardcover) |
| OCLC | 35792200 |
| 303.4 21 | |
| LC Class | HM206 .D48 1997 |
| Preceded by | Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality |
| Followed by | Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed |
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (subtitled A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years in Britain) is a 1997 transdisciplinary nonfiction book by the American author Jared Diamond. The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate primarily in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians (for example, written language or the development among Eurasians of resistance to endemic diseases), he asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures (for example, by facilitating commerce and trade between different cultures) and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes.
In 1998, it won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and the Aventis Prize for Best Science Book. A documentary based on the book, and produced by the National Geographic Society, was broadcast on PBS in July 2005.[1]
- ^ Lovgren, Stefan (July 6, 2005). "'Guns, Germs and Steel': Jared Diamond on Geography as Power". National Geographic News. Archived from the original on October 18, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2011.