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What are the strengths and weaknesses of Jared Diamond's arguments?
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Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel has strengths in its broad synthesis of research across disciplines and its rejection of racist explanations for societal development, emphasizing geographical and environmental factors. However, its weaknesses include overgeneralization, a focus on geographical determinism that downplays human agency and cultural factors, and a lack of engagement with certain historical theories like the "Great Divergence." Despite criticisms, the book remains accessible and thought-provoking.
Guns, Germs, and Steel is a work of synthesis. Diamond tries to bring together the work of scholars in such disciplines as anthropology, evolutionary biology (his own field), and history in order to craft an argument. He is trying to explain why societies developed at different rates and the consequences of this fact. It is the breadth of the book, along with the staggering amount of research it entails, that is its greatest strength, but it also opens Diamond to criticism from specialists. Many readers will struggle with his characterization of, for example, historical theories of social development. He does not engage, for example, with the historical theory of the "Great Divergence" developed by historian Kenneth Pomerzntz, which puts the Industrial Revolution at the forefront as opposed to the much earlier development of agriculture. This is related to another often-cited criticism of Guns, Germs, and Steel . Many critics found...
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the book overly deterministic in its claims that biological and ecological factors essentially mapped out the future of societal and technological development. They think he understates the role of human action (called "agency" by scholars) in the development of societies. This is an especially pertinent critique because it seems to ignore the fact that imperialism, colonialism, and exploitation would then in some ways be natural and unavoidable consequences of the biologically determined process of human development. Diamond actually addresses this second critique directly in the next popular book he published, titled Collapse. Other critics argue that by focusing on the inequality between human societies, Diamond ignores the importance of the inequalities within them. They claim that he ignores the diversity of peoples that he categorizes into races. Still, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a rare example of a work of popular scholarship that prompted serious and important debate within the scholarly community, and even its critics have credited Diamond's ability to present complex scholarly debate in an accessible way. While very broad and sweeping, Guns, Germs and Steel is remarkably focused and "readable." Its rejection of the concept that one culture or society is inherently superior to others is one that all scholars, and hopefully a wider readership, can accept.
References
Jared Diamond's book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, tries to answer Yali's question about why Europeans have so much more "cargo" (material goods) than the natives of Papua New Guinea. The major strength of the book is the manner in which Diamond avoids racist and ethnocentric arguments. Arguing that people from all over the world are equally intelligent, work equally hard, and are equally creative, he suggests instead that geographical and environmental factors play a key role in the disparity of technology and development. His sensitivity to geographical factors, including the existence of specifically domesticable crops and animals in particular regions, is innovative and interesting as is his effort to discredit racism.
The major weaknesses of the book are twofold. First, covering such a broad sweep of history, he can overgeneralize and sometimes relies too much on striking anecdotes. Second, he has a degree of tunnel vision, focusing on geographical determinism and not looking at the effects of cultural and political factors.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of Jared Diamond's theory in Guns, Germs, and Steel?
The major strength of Diamond's theory is that it seems to make a lot of sense. It seems to explain why European countries have, in general, been stronger than those from other continents. Diamond's theory is quite convincing. He does a good job of showing why Eurasia was better able to produce early civilizations and why those civilizations were able to grow and become strong.
The real weakness of Diamond's theory is that it cannot be proven or disproven. Aspects of Diamond's theory can be falsified. We can prove whether he is right or wrong about the number of domesticable plants in a certain area, for example. However, we can never actually prove that cultural or racial explanations have nothing to do with the dominance of European countries. We just have to take his theory (like most in the social sciences) on faith.
What are the strengths of Guns, Germs, and Steel?
The major strength of this book is that it uses a great deal of scientific evidence to set the foundation for its social argument.
Diamond brings out a great deal of scientific evidence in the book. He looks at the distribution of grasses with large seeds. He looks at the distribution of large animals. He looks at the topography of various continents. All of this is used to build a very good foundation that shows that certain areas of the world were more conducive than others to starting civilizations.
Once he has created this foundation, he makes the argument that these natural advantages caused the Europeans to become stronger than the people of the Americas, Australia, or Africa.
The major strength of the book is that it sets up such a solid scientific foundation as a base for its more speculative social conclusions.