What Diamond completely underestimates, is the influences of culture of and biology. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond’s thesis is that “history followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among people’s environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves. Diamond is successful in answering Yali’s question, but, his answer is one that I find to be not comprehensive enough for the magnitude of the subject. Diamond’s aim is to answer Yali’s question: Why is that white people have developed materials and technology and brought it to New Guinea, but the black people have little of their own? (3). Diamond’s purpose was to explain why Eurasian civilizations have had such immense success conquering people and land other than their own. Guns, Germs, and Steel is a fascinating perspective taken by Professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA, Jared Diamond.
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