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Guns germs and steel essay
Guns germs and steel essay
Guns germs and steel essay
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The book Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond, starts off with Yali’s question about why some places are more developed and have more resources compared to others. The essence of this book is based on Diamond’s thesis, he claimed: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples ' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves"(Diamond 25). Diamond tries to explain the cultural development of few societies at different places in the world. One of the question he described most vividly is about “Why did wealth and power become distributed as they now are, rather than in some other way? For instance, why weren 't Native Americans, Africans, and Aboriginal Australians …show more content…
McNeill thinks other important factors besides food supplies should be considered regarding the development of human races. For example, competition between two islands, the invention of weapons that helped human conquered many territories for the resources they needed. Diamond focused on the comparison between islands based on their local resources while forgetting that the two islands might be on a competition against each other, that means that the statistic of surrounding environments might be affected based on the resources of one island has …show more content…
McNeill stated: “Perhaps Diamond makes too much of Eurasia 's east-west axis. After all, India and Southeast Asia occupy different latitudes from Europe, the Middle East and north China: and the deserts and highlands of central Asia pose obstacles to diffusions of crops comparable to any in Africa or America” (McNeill 3). But the spread of crops and grow local availability food on their own farm are usually a common act. Like seeds blown by the wind or spread through water canals to other areas, and animals who carries the fertilizers can easily bring the crop and growth of the crop to nearby areas. Along the East-West, the axis of Eurasia, cattle were such an important domestication in Europe, yet it wasn’t so important in China. This is because of the environment and the state of the weather was not suitable for raising the cattle. And because of cattle naturally can cope with the hot and cold weather they are more suitable to be raised in some area better than others, regardless of geography. Because of these reasons, I concluded that Diamond argues too much on the geography side of the history, rather than the actual history of the Neolithic
Atkinson, Rick. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume 1 of the "Liberation Trilogy." New York: Henry Holt, 2002.
I read the book Soldier X by Don L. Wulffson that takes place during the world war II period. The main character of the book is a 16 year old German boy named Erik Brandt. Although Erik lives in Germany he is also half Russian and speaks Russian very well. Erik does not want to be a part of Hilters Nazi army during world war II but he is forced to fight on the side of the Nazis. During one battle of the war is he forced under a tank during a large scale battle with the Russians. He has no choice but to change clothes and gear with the Russian soldier and be now becomes part of the Russian army. He spends some time in the Russian army and then he gets wounded. He gets send to a Russian hospital and meets a nurse named Tamara. He falls in love with her but then one day the hospital is bombed and he has to escape with her and out of Russia. The story comes to an end with Erik and Tamara escaping Europe and making to over the Atlantic ocean to the United States to have kids and live the rest of there lives.
It is often said that products made in sweatshops are cheap and that is why people buy those products, but why is it behind the clothes or shoes that we wear that make sweatshops bad? In the article Sweat, Fire and Ethics by Bob Jeffcott is trying to persuade the people and tell them how sweatshops are bad.
Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize Winning, National Best Selling book Guns, Germs and Steel, summarizes his book by saying the following: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves." Guns, Germs and Steel is historical literature that documents Jared Diamond's views on how the world as we know it developed. However, is his thesis that environmental factors contribute so greatly to the development of society and culture valid? Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History is the textbook used for this class and it poses several different accounts of how society and culture developed that differ from Diamond's claims. However, neither Diamond nor Traditions are incorrect. Each poses varying, yet true, accounts of the same historical events. Each text chose to analyze history in a different manner. Not without flaws, Jared Diamond makes many claims throughout his work, and provides numerous examples and evidence to support his theories. In this essay, I will summarize Jared Diamond's accounts of world history and evolution of culture, and compare and contrast it with what I have learned using the textbook for this class.
Every individual has two lives, the life we live, and the life we live after that. Nobody is perfect, but if one works hard enough, he or she can stay away from failure. The Natural is a novel written by Bernard Malamud. It is Malamud’s first novel that initially received mixed reactions but afterwards, it was regarded as an outstanding piece of literature. It is a story about Roy Hobbs who after making mistakes in his life, he returns the bribery money and is left with self-hatred for mistakes he has done. Hobbs was a baseball player who aspired to be famous, but because of his carnal and materialistic desire, his quest for heroism failed, as he was left with nothing. In the modern world, the quest for heroism is a difficult struggle, and this can be seen through the protagonist in The Natural.
David W. Blight's book Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory and the American Civil War, is an intriguing look back into the Civil War era which is very heavily studied but misunderstood according to Blight. Blight focuses on how memory shapes history Blight feels, while the Civil War accomplished it goal of abolishing slavery, it fell short of its ultimate potential to pave the way for equality. Blight attempts to prove that the Civil War does little to bring equality to blacks. This book is a composite of twelve essays which are spilt into three parts. The Preludes describe blacks during the era before the Civil War and their struggle to over come slavery and describes the causes, course and consequences of the war. Problems in Civil War memory describes black history and deals with how during and after the war Americans seemed to forget the true meaning of the war which was race. And the postludes describes some for the leaders of black society and how they are attempting to keep the memory and the real meaning of the Civil War alive and explains the purpose of studying historical memory.
A true war story blurs the line between fact and fiction, where it is neither true nor false at the same time. What is true and what is not depends on how much you believe it to be. In the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” from the novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, the author provides various definitions to how the validity of a war story can be judged. The entire chapter is a collection of definitions that describe the various truths to what a true war story is. Unlike O’Brien, who is a novelist and storyteller, David Finkel, the author of “The Good Soldiers”, is a journalist whose job is to report the facts. Yet in the selection that we read, chapter nine, Finkel uses the convention of storytelling, which relies heavily on the stories the combat troops tell each other or him personally. Finkel attempts to give an unbiased view of the Iraq war through the stories of the soldiers but in doing so, Finkel forfeits the use of his own experiences and his own opinions. From O’Brien’s views on what a true war story is combined with my own definitions, I believe that Finkel provides a certain truth to his war stories but not the entire truth.
In the story, The Natural, certain characters and events are portrayed in a distinctive way that makes this story unique to other books and shows the typical writing style of the narrator. The author uses a repetitive writing technique that is impossible to overlook. The writer of this book is able to catch the reader’s eye with his concept of the importance of beautiful description. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud, uses great imagery that makes the story appealing.
Jared Diamond is the author of the Guns, Germs, and Steel. In the book he is making an attempt to answer a question posed by a man named Yali. Yali is a local politician and asked Jared a very simple question on the surface but truly is a hard one to answer. Yali's question is "Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had very little cargo of our own." Jared comes up with a thesis in which he explains in depth later
I deeply agree with Jared Diamond’s ideas on the relationship between geography and history. Geography has had a lot to do with the way early civilizations grew and developed over the course of history. In this essay, I will explain in detail how and why certain civilizations grew quickly. Through my studying and interest in history I can see that it’s very clear that certain civilizations grew faster than others based on geographical location. There is a strong and clear link between geographical location and the history of early civilizations.
Diamond takes us on a journey back in time to 13,000 years ago which he believes is when people after the last ice age started thriving in the Middle East. Gathering grasses that grew between the trees (wheat and barley). Diamond believes these simple grasses had a huge impact on modern civilization.
Watkins, Jeffery. Regents Prep: Global History: Change & Turning Points:, "Neolithic Revolution." Last modified 2003. Accessed March 23, 2012. http://regentsprep.org/Regents/global/themes/change/neo.cfm
Landes, D., 1999. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 38-59
Neolithic cultures and civilizations were found in many places throughout Afro-Eurasia. The reasoning for this will be explained throughout this essay. The reasoning will be presented with factual evidence during the Neolithic Era.
Jared Diamond’s Theory of Geographic Luck explains the reason why some countries, such as Iraq, were able to develop more rapidly than other countries, such as New Guinea. Their ability to become modernized and gain power, wealth, and strength are based on various factors, such as the climate they lived in, the plants found in their surrounding environment, and the animal species found in the region that could be domesticated. Ultimately, it came down to one thing—geographic luck.