Summary of Guns Germs and Steel

Guns, Germs, and Steel is an exploration of the factors that allowed some of the world’s great civilizations to rise to global dominance. In this groundbreaking work, Jared Diamond, a professor of geography and physiology at UCLA, explains why certain peoples and cultures became so powerful and so successful. He argues that the geographic and environmental advantages of certain parts of the world helped to create the conditions that enabled certain cultures to develop powerful technologies and weapons, giving them the edge in battles and allowing them to conquer and dominate other cultures. Diamond also examines how the spread of plants and animals, the development of writing and other technologies, and the advantages of having a larger population enabled some societies to flourish while others lagged behind.