Posted By: ron sivillo
Posted On: January 17, 2013
Jared Diamond is essentially telling a story, one that weaves together geography, anthropology, economics, politics, and culture into a fascinating and important read. The text is not overly academic, so it is palatable to a wide audience - and it should be accessible to a wide audience as it essentially uses science (rather than cultural explanations) to offer a very reasonable account of the broad outlines of human demographic history over the past 13,000 years. His key concern and aim is to show that the relative fortunes of different peoples has nothing to do with racial differences but is primarily a function of geographical and bio-ecological good (or bad) fortune. He seems aware of, but denies, charges of geographical determinism - yet the book seems to keep making the case that there is a strong case for these factors being the most important in deciding a people's relative (economic) position. The access to domestic table plants and animals that can, through farming, generate a surplus that will ultimately support a larger population, technical specialists and complex political structures as well as initially exposing its people to a whole range of infectious diseases and then building up resistance to them is an argument very well made. As a teacher, I can envision myself using it to help students to think critically about their preconceived ideas about other human beings, many from far-flung places that they may know little about. It can help challenge the notions many students have about "superiority" of culture. religions, and even economic systems. Considering that it is intended for a wide-audience, I can see parts of the book used with almost any high school level.