While at Barnes and Noble yesterday afternoon, I saw both this book and Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed on display. (See also this post.) Apparently Guns, Germs, and Steel was turned into a three-part PBS series. Since I don't have time to read the book, perhaps the tv series would suffice--does the BC library have a copy?
Within the study of history, there is certainly room for making the connection between the impact of our practices on the ecology, and the connection between our way of life, politics, and the survivability of a political community. On the other hand, some have argued that this book is a bit simplistic, in so far as it attempts to reduce the explanation of European ascendancy to food cultivation and production and so on, and ultimately to geography, which explains differences in the distribution of various species. As I have not read the book, I can't say if this is an accurate representation of the book's arguments.
WM Norton page for Guns, Germs, and Steel
PBS page for the tv series; wired.com article
A summary and review by Michael McGoodwin
Steve Sailer's review (another)
Inside Higher Ed: "Guns, Germs, and Steel Reconsidered"
Jared Diamond
UCLA School of Medicine page; UCLA Dept. of Geography page
Interviews: The Paula Gordon Show; American Scientist Online; Nova interview; Sierra Club; Salon.com; National Academy of the Sciences; NPQ; bookbrowse; "The Thought Leader Interview"; KPFT [mp3]; Christianity Today
NPR story on Collapse
His intro to E. Mayr's "What Evolution Is"
"The Worst Mistake"
"Easter Island's End"
"The Ends of the World as We Know Them"
Frank W. Ewell's site introducing undergrads to Dr. Diamond
1 comment:
While in Italy I came across some insight of humans having intercourse with primates per choice. Perhaps an investigation towards this sexual scandal, would also explain some of the marked differences in utensils, germs and prime matter, you are targeting in this great read!
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