Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Books / Hardcover
Books › History › Military › General
ISBN: 0393061310 / Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, July 2005
Guns, Germs, and SteelGuns, Germs and Steel
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This work was first published in 1997, and it won the Pulitzer Prize. The current edition includes a new chapter on Japan. In this historical, archaeological, and linguistic investigation, Diamond (geography, U. of California at Los Angeles) seeks the root answers to why European societies (and their American offspring) became the dominant powers on Earth in terms of wealth and power. He traces the proximate causes--the development of deadlier weapons technologies, immunity to germs, superior metal working, and writing systems--to the ultimate cause of the way food production varied in human societies and then looks at geographic variations and impediments that affected food production and the spread of technological innovation in all regions of the world. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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