The attempt by writers of the nonfiction but documentary literature genres to explore various global phenomena often responds to the claim of certain absolutism, that is, the recognition of the perfect truth of the picture of the world that the author offers. In this sense, particularly intriguing are those literary works in which the authors address the entire history of human development from the very beginning of civilizational progress. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is an illustrative example of such a book, in which Jared M. Diamond seeks to answer the fundamental question of why some nations turn out to be more progressive and developed when others have distinct disadvantages of a slower rate of development. Diamond forms the claim as he tries to present the reader with knowledge that reflects all of humanity’s causal relationships and thus could answer the fundamental question of why, for example, the United States, the UAE, and Singapore have significantly outpaced Ethiopia and Afghanistan in the level of technological, political and moral development. Perhaps an excellent demonstration of the writer’s motivation in choosing the topic was the conversation with the New Guinean politician Yali described at the beginning of the book, who asks Diamond the question, “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?” (p. 14). This book review aims to examine the selected book in depth from the context of a critical analysis of the author’s thoughts aimed at attempting to answer Yali’s question.
The historical and ethnographic pretentiousness of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies should not be seen as the author’s superficial attempt to provide world truth. On the contrary, Diamond’s book proves to be carefully crafted, structured, and organized, as the writer presents nineteen chapters, each of which specifically answers the question at hand. For example, in the first chapter, Diamond discusses the very beginnings of civilization, which took place thirteen thousand years ago, and refers to the reader to ancient Africa as the birthplace of all humanity (p. 37). At the same time, in chapter fourteen, the author attempts to answer the question of the development of religion and the legal system (p. 165). Although most of Diamond’s ideas and thoughts are not supported by sources and footnotes, he cites a great deal of graphic and illustrative material, as well as references to archaeological and anthropological evidence, which encourages the reader to be convinced of the writer’s authority. In other words, Diamond’s book should not be regarded as fiction or provocative material designed only to increase sales, but instead is practically a textbook on the historical and cultural development of civilization. Nevertheless, the book cannot be called a real textbook since Diamond often refers the reader to his own experiences and examples of life situations, that is, he introduces subjectivity into the material (p. 85). It follows that the literary work should be seen as a carefully considered and organized attempt by the author to answer a fundamental existential question but to do so in as accessible a way as possible to a wide range of readers.
Diamond’s scrupulousness in attempting to answer Yali’s question is that the author does not present it immediately after formulating the task itself and, indeed, does not answer it directly. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is structured to show that combinations of certain factors may have been stimulating the development of one civilization, and accordingly, the scarcity of such resources was an excuse for slow progress for another. This is the thoroughness of the book, for Diamond immediately states that there is no single factor, biological or cultural, that can answer Yali’s question, but instead, the problem must be looked at comprehensively (p. 17).
The writer addresses the idea of complex determinism when he shows why one civilizational community differs from another. In stimulating development, Diamond attaches great importance to the availability of resources and postulates that it was the shift from gathering and hunting to agriculture that catalyzed development (p. 356). In this sense, the critical argument is that those regions that had more agricultural resources and wild animals suitable for domestication made a more rapid transition in development and are qualitatively different from those that had scarce opportunities. This seems to be reflected in the current economic order as well since the more technologically advanced countries often use the historical model of capitalism based on competition, cooperation, and resources. This parallels the conclusion that the model of capitalism was also valid for primitive intercommunal and inter-civilizational relations, even if there were not yet direct contacts between communities as well as states themselves.
In this sense, it is interesting to highlight some of the contradictions between the primitive community model described by Diamond and the modern capitalist state as exemplified by the United States, especially since Diamond himself does not neglect such comparisons. In particular, Diamond reports that resource-rich societies began to produce more food to meet the needs of more people and support populations, which, in turn, contributed to the development of better technology and political systems (p. 87). At the same time, The Sane Society by Erich Fromm argues that modern U.S. society (relative to the mid-twentieth century) has created a system in which surplus agricultural production is not economically viable, so the government decides to reduce production despite the millions of starving Americans (Fromm, 1990). This parallel is not coincidental: it seems that the path of civilizational development, based initially on the pursuit of human happiness and opportunity for all, has been broken. Diamond himself provides excellent corroboration of this assumption when he writes that his life in the New Guinean regions showed that despite the civilizational capabilities of developed countries (the United States), Americans lacked the compassion and support that the author received in less technologically advanced territories (p. 18). All of this leads to the idea that human progress in the developed world has not been built on a path toward absolute happiness, at least equal for all.
The thoroughness of Diamond’s book material becomes especially apparent when reading chapter four. Earlier, the author told the reader how powerful the catalyzing effect of agriculture was and how its spread helped the development of civilizational thought. In chapter four, the writer does not abandon this concept but expands it with a non-obvious idea, namely, the development of immunity: “The humans who domesticated animals were the first to fall victim to the newly evolved germs, but those humans then evolved substantial resistance to the new diseases” (p. 92). It is interesting that, as Diamond reports, being forced to do “dirty” work in the soil caused people to develop a large number of diseases, which, combined with Darwin’s evolutionary ideas, created communities resistant to such diseases (p. 124). The spread of disease as a factor in technological development was also suggested further when Diamond reported geographic location as a predictor of progress (p. 77; p. 314). In particular, the availability of maritime communication between countries at the stage of the commercial development of nations allowed them to exchange not only technology, resources, and knowledge but also diseases, which enhanced the worldwide progress of those countries that were involved in the trade routes. Thus, Diamond is characterized by the use of fundamental biological and ecological theories to explain the socio-economic development of countries, which strengthens the perception of the authoritativeness of book material. However, this thought allows one to be more critical of the differentiation of the world order into unambiguously developed and undeveloped countries. The traditional perception of Western society as progressive, especially in comparison with African regions, is violated in this case. The reason for this violation is the involvement of resource-rich African countries in world trade routes and, thus, the almost equal pace of agricultural development for both Western and African countries. This idea, expressed by Diamond, forces the reader to reflect on the stereotypical understanding of the global order and rethink previous views.
A critical analysis of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is worth elaborating on its strengths and weaknesses. A large number of illustrative examples, the author’s easy-to-understand writing style, the use of graphics, the fragmentation of the general answer to the Yali question into sections, and their logical sequence are positive aspects of this literary work. These attributes allow the reader to avoid wondering what exactly Diamond meant by a particular argument while still maintaining the overall connection of the narrative between the sections. Moreover, the author constantly refers to evidence to support his theses, which should also be seen as a strength of the book (p. 37; p. 23; p. 304). After reading it, one also gets the impression that Diamond is not biased in his ideas and is not a typical Western-centric author, so he appears to be more open to new experiences and ideas that he writes about in his book.
Despite its apparent advantages, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is not without some weaknesses. One such weakness is some of the overgeneralization to which Diamond turns in an attempt to make his arguments convincing. For example, in describing communities, species, and varieties, Diamond keeps using the words “many” and “most” but never specifies specific biological names, which can seem like a manipulative generalization to cover up inconvenient evidence: “many herd species…”, “But the vast majority of wild plants…” (p. 174; p. 121). A big issue with this book is the seeming neglect of cultural influences on the development of civilizations since Diamond dwells primarily on geographical and environmental factors, though he does touch on writing and languages. The inexperienced reader might infer from this that culture — art, film, and sculpture — had no practical value in shaping civilizational progress, which in reality, it does not. A fundamental problem with the book is also the lack of an answer to the question apparently arising from Diamond’s argument. Thus, one of the book’s main ideas is that a larger population creates opportunities for accelerated technological and civilizational progress. On this assumption, indeed, based on the evidence, India and China, as the leaders in the population, should be the absolute leaders in the development of civilization as well, but there is some contradiction in this: Diamond provides no answer to this contradiction. In turn, this may lead the reader to misunderstand the perspectives of non-European societies.
It is fair to say that the real flaws in this book do not mean that Diamond’s work was unsuccessful, biased, or unworthy of reading. Like all literature, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies has weaknesses, but it is the material that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 (Skube et al., 1998). The book provides immediate answers to the question of civilizational differences between communities but should not be seen as claiming to be the only answer. Diamond forces a reflection and reconsideration of some of the previously stable views of the world order, which reinforces the development of critical reflection. Thus, Diamond has done serious work and research, including factual research, to provide the reader with reflections on the geographic and ecological determinism of development. For this reason, the book would be useful reading for students and scholars interested in ethnographic and historical studies, as well as for all readers who would like to expand their knowledge of the process of the historical development of civilizations. Thus, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond is unequivocally recommended for reading, if only for the reason that the book allows to form a primary basis for understanding the processes of civilizational development or to evaluate the existing knowledge critically.
References
Diamond, J. M. (1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W. W. Norton & Company.
Fromm, E. (1990). The sane society. Holt Paperbacks.
Skube, M., Noonan, P., and Gater Jr., H. L. (1998). Guns, germs and steel: The fates of human societies, by Jared Diamond (W.W. Norton). The Pulitzer Prizes. Web.