Guns, Germs And Steel By Jared Diamond

According to page 103, “The people of areas with a head start on food production thereby gained a head start on the path leading towards guns, germs and steel.”

Jared Diamond discusses the reasons why geographical and environmental factors lead to a more rapid progression of certain civilizations throughout history. The book Guns, Germs and Steel portrays an argument that due to some societies’ access to an area witch contains sufficient amounts of wildlife and climates that are easily inhabitable, these societies developed into more advanced ways of living much easier and also earlier than societies who lacked these geographical attributes. These beneficial geographical attributes promoted the growth of technological improvements in weapons, religion, and farming.

The first consideration Diamond discusses is that just because something happened and that it would have happened anyway, it does not make the act good or just. The second consideration is that the most powerful region, in this case, western Europe, should not be the only one talked about because ideas and practices that are now or were at that time integrated into their culture were not necessarily developed by them, but by other culture that imported their beliefs into European culture. The third

In the short book of “No Heroes, No Villains” by Steven Phillips On June 28, 1972, a Transit Authority patrolman, John Skagen, was on his way home from testifying at court for an arrest he made a couple of weeks prior. Skagen was taking the train home to the Bronx when he saw and stopped James Richardson who was awaiting the subway train which would take him to work at Lincoln Hospital. Skagen ordered him to “put up your hands, and get against the wall”. Skagen’s actions seem unprovoked and unnecessary. After a short tussle the two men exchanged shots and Richardson fled the scene on foot. Two other officers that were on the main street above the subway station rushed to the scene.

C.S. Lewis one said “Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny”. Facing hardships and breaking free from their normal world allows the hero inside of people to come out. Many stories document this journey of a hero through the Hero’s Journey Archetype. In the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a man named Rainsford stumbles upon an island where humans are hunted by a crazed man. The hero’s journey archetype is implemented throughout Rainsford’s experiences in the story. Richard Connell used the Hero’s Journey Archetype to structure the plot and develop the theme that with clever thinking and the use of past experiences, one can succeed at anything.

"Battleground America," written by Jill Lepore, provides a strong history of guns and the way they have changed in the eyes of the American through the years. She proves her point with strong evidence throughout her article, sprinkling it with opinion and argument that is strongly supported. She presents her argument to convince her audience that the open availability of guns allows citizens to undeservingly purchase them by displaying the credibility in her sources, using negative connotations in her speech, and the strength and objectivity only a strong logos appeal can provide.

Diamond explains that our worst mistake was the transition from hunter-gathers to farmers. Diamond believes that humans were better off chasing our food rather than planting it due to the consequences that followed after such a dramatic change of life. His reasoning expands further out than one might think of about this subject. He talks about the social changes that were created when agriculture began. Diamond spews empowering points that leave a reader pondering if he is correct. People are only sure of how the world is now but the possibilities are endless on what our world could have been if agriculture had not begun.

In the book Guns, Germs and Steel Jared Diamond who is a biophysics scientist and a psychologist, set out on a journey to find out the reason behind great achievements and conquest of the Europeans. What is the secret of success of Europeans? His hypothesis was very original and at first looked very simple, it was guns, germs and steel. The journey of Diamond took over 30 years and helped him answer the main questions of human history and what is it that separates humans today from "rich and poor" and from "haves and have not’s." To do this he had to go back when everyone was equal.

No one truly knows what exactly happened during the Revolutionary War, however, the book Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson describes the brutality of the war through a teenage boy’s eyes. Curzon was forged by the hardships of war and slavery, and endured the long winter in Valley Forge, where he forged friendships through hard times in the “mixing pot” of the Valley Forge camp. There are many interpretations for the word forge, and in the book Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson, Curzon explores the meanings of the word forge through the perils of war, the hardships of slavery, and enduring a harsh winter at Valley Forge. In the beginning of the book Forge, Curzon found himself in the middle of a gruesome battle.

In today's society, you are judged by the clothes you wear, the house you live in, the car you drive, and other materialistic items. Regardless of whether you are a adult or a child, envying those with more is human nature. A less fortunate person will always feel inferior to those with more because they feel they are being judged. Rick Bragg, having to earn his way into the middle class, envied those who were born into rich families. He then soon realized it was an achievement on his part by having to work for what he now has: justification.

When reading the title of Jared Diamond’s, “Guns, Germs, and Steels,” the readers must initially think how do these three connect? After starting the first few chapters they will realize that Diamond is referring to the proximate and ultimate factors in that lead to the advancement of society. When Diamond talks about proximate and ultimate factors, he is explaining the cause of European dominance in the world. The proximate factors are the one that directly led to the European dominance and the ultimate factors are the ones that let to proximate factors. I believe that this book is referring to the Homo sapiens revolutionizing through the years, through the Neolithic Revolution through agriculture and industrialization.

John Keegan describes his book, The Face of Battle, as "a personal attempt to catch a glimpse of the face of battle." This personal aspect that Keegan mentions is essential to his book and is excellently articulated, driving home his point. Keegan, who taught at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for over 25 years, begins by acknowledging his uneasiness with the fact that even though he taught British cadets military history, "I have not been in a battle; not near one, nor heard one from afar, nor seen the aftermath . . . And I grow increasingly convinced that I have very little idea of what a battle can be like." Keegan is clear to state his proposition that almost all military history has functioned simply as a “battle piece” description in which one can see all the larger moving aspects followed by the outcome. However, this sort of recounting fails to acknowledge the personal side of war, the experience of battle. What really ensues when a cavalry unit meets an infantry unit? What are the vital features in determining whether soldiers stand and fight or turn and run?

The book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond allows readers to explore the developmental differences between societies across the globe. The author, Jared Diamond, is a scientist who uses his knowledge in this field to explore different societies in depth while traveling around the world. In 1972, a politician in New Guinea by the name of Yali asked Diamond why Europe and Asia were so advanced in comparison to other areas. For the next two and a half decades, Diamond’s goal was to find what made societies in different geographical locations so developmentally different. Jared Diamond formed his answer to Yali’s question through explaining the history of weapons, disease, and steel tools in different societies, hence the title Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.

A biologist in training, a specialist in human physiology, and a professor at UCLA in Los Angeles are only one of the many occupations Jared Diamond, writer of the “Guns, Germs, and Steel” book has. Diamond is the leading expert on the bird life on the island of Papua New Guinea where he would travel regularly, he travelled to Papua New Guinea when he was twenty-six years old, his real passion had always been the study of birds. More than thirty years ago, Diamond was asked by a man called Yali, “why you white men have so much cargo, and we New Guineans have so little?” That made Diamond critically think. He went on a journey that took him nearly thirty years to find reasons what is it dividing the humans from rich to poor and as to why Europeans

Jared Diamond is a professor of Geography at UCLA and a world traveler. He believes that in the past 13,000 years of human history, agriculture has lead humans to conquer, develop and prosper and therefore cause the rise of civilizations. In 1972 he was in New Guinea when he met a local named Yali who asked him a simple question that took years for Diamond to answer. Yali said “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo [goods] and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own”. [Work cited 7] Diamond was profoundly puzzled and couldn’t answer right away. In fact it took him many years to come up with what he thinks is the right answer. ‘Yali’s question’ plays a central role in Professor Diamond’s enquiry into ‘a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years’, leading him into a wide-ranging discussion of the history of human evolution and diversity through a study of migration, socio-economic and cultural adaptation to environmental conditions, and technological diffusion. (Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel, p. 22-23)