Guns, Germs, and Steel is a New York Times bestseller, written by Jared Diamond. The book was published in 1999 by WW Norton and Company located in New York. Diamond shares his views and arguments in the first 376 pages, then continues with acknowledgments and an index until page 475. The book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, explains why some companies are more materially successful than others. others. The book is composed in response to a question Diamond received from Yali, a New Guinean politician. Yali wanted to know, “Why did you white people develop so many goods…while we black people had our own small amount of goods?” It mainly asks: why have European societies enjoyed such economic and technological success over the past 500 years, while other societies have not achieved such a level of success? To answer this question, the book attributes societal success to geography, food production, immunity from germs, domestication of animals, and the use of steel. Important points made by the book included that breeding and domestication of animals provides the social stability that was lacking in hunter-gatherer societies. Specialization of work allows certain groups to develop weapons. Diamond also stated that Eurasia had a natural advantage in the development of agriculture and animal husbandry due to geography and the appearance of easily domesticated plants and animals. He continues throughout the book and explains how the evolution of guns, germs, and steel has greatly influenced the progress of societies. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The main purpose of this book was to try to answer a question; history's biggest question: why history has unfolded differently on different continents over the past thousand years. The usual answer to this question is one that many people offer; they say it's because some people are superior to others. However, what the book proves is that the answer has nothing to do with people but rather their environment. Jared Diamond's goal in writing this book was to disperse racist ideas about the reasons for European technological power to the rest of the world. His thesis is: “History has taken different courses for different peoples because of differences between peoples' environments, not because of biological differences between peoples themselves. » Diamond carefully uses the "natural history experiment" in the Polynesian islands to confirm that over the course of several years of development, different environmental influences such as climates range from warm tropical or subtropical on some islands to old subantarctic on others. Another example of the impact of environments is the difference in the availability of wild plants and animals suitable for domestication. Many of them are found in a few regions like the Fertile Crescent of China and virtually none in other regions like the Western United States. All of this helps to illustrate his view that environments have a profound effect on the development of equal people. Another difference was the shape and orientation of the continents – these are perhaps the two main factors contributing to the explanation. In addition to providing facts and observations about our world and societies, the book also brings out a pretty powerful lesson. Although the book iswritten from an evolutionary perspective, as Christians we should be able to turn it around and examine it from a Christian perspective. The foundation of Guns, Germs, and Steel evolves on the concept that we all started at the same level. Beyond that, God created each of us. He did not make a certain sex or nationality more supreme than the other. He cared and still cares for us, because we are his own children. He created each of us through compassion and love and made us each individual and unique in our own way. Therefore, we should not judge less fortunate people by saying that they are boring and inactive and that is how they got to their state of being, because we do not know what they have been through during their life. An example of this can be taken from the case of the New Guineans. Even though they aren't a high class society and don't have all the valuables we carry, that doesn't mean they aren't worthy. In fact, they are the ones who most deserve all the hard work they do to improve their society. New Guineans work long hours outdoors and in the fields to collect food and build houses to provide for their families. However, they do it not because they deserve it, but because of the geographical content of their territory. God created us all from nothing, and we are all sinners, however, we are still all the same, and through geography and economics come all the differences we each have. Reading Guns Germs and Steel was quite engaging. Through the book, Diamond revealed all the findings he had collected during his studies and wrote them up, although many points were questionable. The book was a platform to see the way he personally saw the world. It made reading a lot more fun. Diamond's writing was very distinct and offered many samples. This made his point easier to understand. However, the main reason I enjoyed this book was because the author provided a perspective and point of view on the world that I would never have seen. The answer that geography has shaped our world is one I would never have answered if the question had been asked. My favorite sections were chapter 2 and chapter 18. Chapter 2 explains how geography shaped the societies of the Polynesian islands. This was a crucial example to help understand the book. It gave an insight into today's modern culture and how it has been affected. The context given compared the Moriori and the Maori, two societies located on different islands. One was a hunter-gatherer, while the other turned to agriculture. The reason for this difference was the different climate and altitude of each island. These islands are incredibly diverse, reflecting the environmental differences between the islands. I also enjoyed chapter 18 from the things I learned while reading it. Learning about history, I always knew that diseases played a role in the conquest of America, but I didn't realize they had such an impact. Native American societies lacked large domesticated mammals. As a result, the expeditions of Columbus and Pizarro were not wiped out by Native American diseases. It was European-borne diseases, like smallpox, that killed Native Americans due to their failing immune systems. Another reason for the conquest was that the majority of Native Americans were hunter-gatherers and the lack of reliable sources of grain and fertile soil.