When reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, one may assume that the author has an extensive background with history, mainly focusing on prehistoric times. This assumption would be incorrect. Jarod Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel (as well as The Third Chimpanzee, Collapse, and The World Until Yesterday) began his studies in physiology, which then turned into him also studying biology, geography, and many other disciplines as stated by his website (http://www.jareddiamond.org). Although his main interests are about the sciences, he continues to write books about the history of the world. This is because he does something that many authors cannot do: he uses his biology background to make sense of the world and how we got here. For example, on page 53, Diamond is talking about environmental effects on the Moriori and Maori people. To show how the environmental effects could affect these people, he brings up an example of placing lab rats in different environments to see what happened. Most historians would not think of an example like that; only someone with a biology background (such as Diamond) would. By using two disciplines to explain a topic, this forces the reader to not only think about the historical side of something, but also the biological side, thus expanding the readers knowledge on the topic.
One of Diamond’s central questions asks why did history unfold differently on different continents. He is trying to see and explain why some areas developed the way that they did. In part one, he uses each chapter to explain how a culture grew. For example, Diamond focused on Moriori and Maori in chapter two, and Cajamarca in chapter three. This question and answer is intriguing because it challenges the common perception that everything happened at the same time. It also makes people realize that humans did not exist everywhere in the beginning of time. They evolved from the great apes of Africa, and migrated from there and created families everywhere they stopped (36). Some people may disagree with Diamond’s ideas and say that humans may have evolved differently or that they did not travel to certain places in a certain order. He addresses this by stating what other historians think, explaining why they think that way, acknowledging that either theory could be correct, and continues on with what he believes about the situation.
One of the ways Jarod Diamond answers his question is to look at the fossils that were left behind. From this, he can tell who or what was in this area, what they did to survive, what they ate, how advanced they were, as well as during what time period they were in a particular area. By piecing together different bones, he can determine what type of animals existed in a particular area. For example, if he found Homo erectus bones, then he would know that they existed there. This can also apply to fossils not found in an area. If there are no fossils present, then we cannot be sure if a species lived in that area. Arrowheads, writing utensils, and spears that are found can also tell us if they had the technology to build and use these things for a purpose. Diamond also determines when these species were living, however his method differs from other historians. He uses calibrated radiocarbon dates instead of the usual uncalibrated radiocarbon dates because it provides dates that are closer to calendar dates. This can confuse readers because if they do not know the difference between the two, they may think they are receiving false information when they are actually seeing two correct dates that are relative based on calibration. I find this useful because it gives the date a meaning that is relative to the calendar that we use today. It makes it easier to create and connect a sequence of events.
One thing that Diamond does well in Guns, Germs, and Steel is taking other historians viewpoints into consideration. He recognizes that his way and thoughts is not the only way to think, and that other historians can disagree with him and still be correct. Diamond explains this on page 37 when he is talking about the earliest “X”. Here, he states that when someone finds the earliest existence of something (X), it challenges all other beliefs of when X first existed. He also acknowledges that it can take an extensive amount of research to confirm when X actually happened. This allows the reader to stay open minded, and to not be completely set on a fact because it can change when new information is found.
A weakness of part one would be that it can get pretty dull. For someone who does not gravitate towards history, this book can become very boring very fast. This then leads the reader to start to only read the words on the pages, rather than to comprehend and analyze them. When this happens, the reader could miss a lot of information, which leads to them rereading the same passage over and over again, adding to their frustration. To fix this, I would remove the parts where Diamond seemed to drone on about the same thing, as well as try to engage the reader more by forcing them to think critically about the topics they are reading.