Guns, Germs, and Steel

贾雷德·戴蒙德，加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校医学院生理学教授以生理学开始其科学生涯，进而研究演化生物学和生物地理学，被选为美国艺术与科学院、国家科学院院士、美国哲学学会会员，曾获得麦克阿瑟基金会研究员基金及全国地理学会伯尔奖，在《发现》、《博物学》、《自然》和《地理》杂志上发表过论文200多篇。

出版者:W. W. Norton & Company

作者:Jared Diamond

页数:528

出版时间:2005-7-17

价格:USD 29.95

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780393061314

图书标签:历史人类学社会学英文原版anthropology社会Diamond文明

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. This edition includes a new chapter on Japan and all-new illustrations drawn from the television series. Until around 11,000 BC, all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren't native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences. He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, "Guns, Germs and Steel" encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers.

读后感

0. 发现书看一半时往往更愿意写评论。常常看完了之后当初的兴奋也没了。 所以，这本砖头般厚实的书今天刚刚K完四分之一，因为兴奋莫名，所以先来说几句。要是看完了还有要讲的，再来添吧。。。 这本书已经流行了好一阵子了，可是这个书名老是让我想起那个叫“Gun & Roses” ...  

作者的观点与黄仁宇的类似。 1环境差异决定了当时的历史选择，从而对后来事件产生了决定性的影响。 2 各大洲的环境是不同的，从而有了不同的机遇。 3亚欧大陆的横向轴线，非洲与美洲的纵向轴线，以及澳洲的独立，影响了传播。 4环境差异决定了当时的历史选择，从而对后来事...  

零、 戴蒙德的专业是生物学和新几内亚人类学考察，除此之外写的都是科普书，而且前后重复（后面所有的书不过是扩写他的第一本书第三种猩猩而已），观点陈旧（他的人类学理论训练很可能停留在人类学2.0版本的反思民族志之前，因此习以为常地使用人类学1.0版本的西方中心论或东方...  

这个学期比较空闲，思考、阅读兴趣比较倾向于宏大叙事，而且一直在变化，从最开始的为什么会有穷人和富人，到为什么穷国和富国同样能力的人收入不同，到为什么会有穷国和富国，再到为什么会突然出现工业革命并在英国，到人类社会如何发展的及差异的原因，最后到为什么会出现人...  

用户评价

补全了一些以前没有想过的道理... 全书虽然买了电子版但却是在开车途中听完audiobook的. 多快好省, 非常赞

农作物与家畜，人口的稠密程度，地理环境的影响，新技术的扩散容易程度，病菌所引起的各种疾病的影响等。由上，对比了不同地区的发展情况，以及所导致的人类历史进程。

每一个章节有自成体系的论述，条理清晰，可以skim也可以细细读，可见笔者写作功力。从写作层面上讲很值得学习；论述方面，从人类学，地理，历史的角度解答几个近现代遗留问题--历史是偶然也是必然。最后的afterwords一定要看！

补全了一些以前没有想过的道理... 全书虽然买了电子版但却是在开车途中听完audiobook的. 多快好省, 非常赞

History has its victors and victims, of course, and Diamond's account of how those victims became victims is not inviting to both sides. On the side of victors, he underrates their cultural autonomy，and on the side of victims, he offers them an inevitable and miserable destiny.