Concept Of Biased Opinions In Guns, Germs And Steel

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The non-fiction novel, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, thoroughly explains why powerful countries became powerful over poor, third world countries. In the first part of the book, Diamond explains to us Yali’s question. Yali was a politician that lived in New Guinea and he asked Jared, “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own”(page 14). This question is what drove Diamond to take 25 years out of his life and write the world-renowned novel. Yali’s question was very specific to just his country but Diamond decided to expand the question and come up with a universal question, “Why did wealth and power become distributed as they now are, rather than in some other way”(page15). Historians have asked this question so much that some have stopped wondering and have given up, but Jared believed with all his background knowledge and his set of skills that he can answer this question to people satisfactory. He believes the theory that countries are separated by wealth because of the biological variation in particular regions is created in racist ideology. Diamond expresses his information through parts and chapters. Each chapter is divided into parts which correlates the to main idea, why did some countries attain guns, germs, and steel before other countries. In each section Jared always asks the main question and then breaks down the question in multiple ways, then explains is through science and ethic sense. At the end of each chapter he summarizes the section he wrote observed multiple times throughout the chapter. This novel encompanies the biased opinions of the first world countries and explains why they are, in a sense, wrong.

Jared Diamond went about answering Yali’s question in a very specific way. He explores civilizations since they first began, almost 13,000 years ago. The fact that he does this, gives us more information on each topic and subject. Diamond relied on information of his skills. He is a biologist, physiologist, ecologist, geographer, and anthropologist. All of these assets came to great use in answering the question. It is also what separates Diamond from all of the other historians. Jared relied on the evidence of quotes from people during the era he is studying. When he talks about New Zealand and the Maori people he uses a quote from a Moriori survivor, “[The Maori] commenced to kill us like us like sheep…[We]were terrified, fled to the bush, concealed ourselves in holes underground, and in any place to escape our enemies. It was of no avail; we were discovered and killed-men, women, and children indiscriminately”(page 53). He also used a quote when talking about Pizzaro’s conquest in South America. “…The Spaniards fell upon them and began to cut them to pieces. The Indians were so filled with fear that they climbed on top of one another, they formed mounds, and suffocated each other”(page 72). Each of these quotes from primary sources, show that when a civilization isn’t isolated and develops agriculture faster, it can overthrow a weaker civilization just as large. The Incan people had around 80,000 soldiers, while Pizzaro had only about 168 Spaniards. These quotes and the detail Diamond dives into, shows his effort in researching and explaining his findings. He frequently used scientific facts like how different soils in different regions attribute to how long it took that particular civilization to begin farming and agriculture. Adding to this, he also uses other scientists advice and work. In Credits and Acknowledgements he notes the scientists and colleagues who helped him out in his research and his information. For the most part, Jared entrusts physical and linguistic evidence to convey his ideas and answers. Using his knowledge, he could explain why certain civilizations and empires could conquer other submissive, smaller, civilizations based on how fast they are developing and how isolated that one civilization is. When Diamond uses physical evidence he shows, geographically, why one group of people obtained guns or steel before others. Linguistic evidence is just as important as physical as it makes understanding the timeline of his explanation when putting dates down. Using these dates and specific numbers, understanding the explanation became incredibly easier. Diamond also used graphs and images to get his message across. Each graph was set up to be easily read and understood. Along with the graphs, the pictures he inserted brought the book to life and made it more realistic. The graphs and pictures therefore clarify the context Diamond was writing about.

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Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond is a very descriptive approach to showing the biased opinions people may have on the development of civilizations. Diamond uses many pieces of evidence to show us why certain countries were more advanced than others. After contemplating the reasons he uses you can appreciate the fact that he does a very good job in persuading people who wouldn’t give this subject serious thought. But, there are very controversial topics in here that if someone felt strongly about this topic, Diamond would have a harder time persuading them. Diamond’s style of writing was very dry and uninteresting. I found this book extremely boring at some points but also somewhat interesting at others. Diamond confused me at many points but also then slightly explained what I was confused about. I understood the book for the most part but I had to take a good amount of time processing the information he wrote. He made me very angry with the fact that he kept asking questions and it felt like he isn’t answering them completely therefore leaving me angry and needing more information. This book mentally drained me and I would not recommend this horror of a book on anyone. The novel, along with Diamond’s writing overwhelmed me to the point where I never wanted to pick up the book again. It was a good idea to write a book like this and explain something that people have been wondering about forever. But, I would say it was a confusing and poor execution but it definitely opened my eyes to the biased opinions I may have had. 

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