Guns, Germs, and Steel - Hot or Not

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/thread

No.

>>3020963
It's a compelling view on human history by a non-historian that brings up points worthy of discussion. It is not an authoritative final word.

>>3020966
kek

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>>3020963
It's an ok book that says nothing revolutionary, but lays down well a lot of introductive facts about human geography. The author however is very bad at keeping a neutral tone, and many readers get absolutely butthurt about it. Kinda understandable really, it made me want to throw the book out of the window after the 10th time he wrote how there's no racial superiority but the papuans are obviously the masterrace, but it's not really ground to dismiss his actual arguments. Only the PC idiocy he can't seem to be able to disassociate from.

>>3020966
>tame = domestic
You haven't actually read the book, have you?

>>3020963
>Is this book a legit account of history
Absolutely not which is why it gets shredded in academic book reviews. Most of the history in the book is shoddy and some outright false.

>>3021008
Not him, but even if you rightfully ignore the zebra, Africa domesticated their own cattle. GGS is the epitome of someone stepping out of their field and writing about things they have no knowledge while claiming it is a new perspective when really it's just bullshit.

>>3021208
>Africa domesticated their own cattle
North Africa did, sure. It's mentioned in the book. He specifically refer to sub-saharan Africa as having no domesticable big mammals.

>>3021229
No, East Africa did. Sanga Cattle originate from modern Tanzania.

>>3020963
Don't bother asking here since I doubt anyone actually read it.

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>>3021229
what are the borana then

>>3020963
His thesis is fine but he takes it too far into the realm of determinism. Environmental factors are not the whole story.

>>3021240
this. Most people will just wiki it and spout their useless opinions

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>>3021240
I'll have you know I listened to the first thirty minutes of the audiobook.

I had to read it back in 11th grade. I think it's worth reading, but it should be assigned in a college-level course with a healthy critical examination of some of Diamond's more out-there claims rather than taught as a HS textbook.

>>3020963
It's the only book I know of that pissed of redpillers and sjws. It's done everything right.

>>3021243
How much weight can they carry, what weight can they pull, what is their general temper like, do they have an exploitable social hierarchy?

Genuine question since I know nothing about them.

>>3020963
It's absolute shit because it doesn't reaffirm my own beliefs.

>>3020966
Entire book BTFO

>>3021961
great argument friend

>>3020963
>anti racism

You what? GG&S is widely despised because it supports white supremacist notions, Diamond's reputation is nonexistent because he's considered to be a white supremacist, not because he's "anti racist".

Alfred Crosby's Ecological Imperalism should be the book people remember. Not this one

Interesting ideas through all the book, but "race realists" don't appreciate it for the excessive determinism, while the masters of political correctness can't phathom someone saying that europeans conquered the world because of their technological supremacy

I've never read it, but I did read Collapse by Jared Diamond. That book was quite interesting, particularly the chapter on the Rwandan genocide. He questions the conventional narrative that it was a country with a history of racial tension that boiled out of control, and instead talks about how it was really a malthusian crisis. As out there as that sounds he makes some compelling points.

Is there any official academic stans on environmentañ determinism.

>>3020963
He was a jew giving excuses for the failures of certain races due to the glaring implication of their inferiority suggested by racial history and achievements.