Guns, Germs and Steel.
I just watched most of the 3 part of “Guns Germs and Steel”:http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/. Based on the 1997 Jared Diamond book “by the same name”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393317552?v=glance.
For the most part, I enjoyed it. I do agree with some of the negative reviews, They kept hammering the same points over and over again - each segment could have been 20, instead of 60, minutes long. The one question it left me with was this: If south africa has almost the same climate as the fertile cresent, why didn’t they end up with the same advantages as the Europeans?
July 26th, 2005 at 6:07 pm
I had no idea PBS did a special based off GG&S. I bought that book a while back, but I only read the first chapter or so before it was supplanted by other novels.
Now my question do I read the book or watch the special first?
July 26th, 2005 at 6:10 pm
I never read it, but from what I got out of the mini-series, I don’t think I need to read it. I’m sure I can find the rest of his argument online - he also had an op-ed in “Discover Magazine from 1987″:http://www.agron.iastate.edu/courses/agron342/diamondmistake.html which I think lays out his basic thesis.
July 27th, 2005 at 10:04 am
I should probably read the book, seeing as it’s sitting on my bookshelf. I think I’ll try to hurry and finish it so I can check out the series.