Gun, germs, steel
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Book Introduction
A world-renowned work that illuminates the mysteries of the creation and prosperity of civilization.
Finally, a new edition commemorating the 25th anniversary of its publication!
Jared Diamond, a world-renowned scholar who transcends academic boundaries.
His masterpiece, Guns, Germs, and Steel, which delivered keen insights into human civilization and won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize, is now available in a new translation and editing.
Why are some nations rich and others poor? Why are some peoples subject to conquest and domination by others? This groundbreaking work, which integrates diverse disciplines such as biology, geography, anthropology, and history to unravel the grand history of humankind, comprehensively uncovers the causes of inequality in the modern world.
The new edition, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the book's publication, includes a special preface by the author in 2023, an introduction by Professor Park Han-seon of the Department of Anthropology at Seoul National University, and a new preface and afterword, enriching the book with rich reading material.
Finally, a new edition commemorating the 25th anniversary of its publication!
Jared Diamond, a world-renowned scholar who transcends academic boundaries.
His masterpiece, Guns, Germs, and Steel, which delivered keen insights into human civilization and won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize, is now available in a new translation and editing.
Why are some nations rich and others poor? Why are some peoples subject to conquest and domination by others? This groundbreaking work, which integrates diverse disciplines such as biology, geography, anthropology, and history to unravel the grand history of humankind, comprehensively uncovers the causes of inequality in the modern world.
The new edition, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the book's publication, includes a special preface by the author in 2023, an introduction by Professor Park Han-seon of the Department of Anthropology at Seoul National University, and a new preface and afterword, enriching the book with rich reading material.
- You can preview some of the book's contents.
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index
Special Preface for 2023_ To our beloved Korean readers
Introduction_Why is world history like an onion?
Prologue_Yalli's Question
Part 1 | From Eden to Cajamarca
Chapter 1: What happened up until the starting line?
Chapter 2: History's Natural Experiment
Chapter 3: The Conflict at Cajamarca
Part 2 | The Origins and Spread of Food Production
Chapter 4: The Power of Agriculture
Chapter 5: The Haves and Have-Nots in History
Chapter 6: Farming, a Crossroads of Choice
Chapter 7 How to Grow Almonds
Chapter 8: Was it the apples or the Indians?
Chapter 9: Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, and the Anna Karenina Principle
Chapter 10: The Vast Sky and the Tilted Axis
Part 3 | From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel
Chapter 11: The Fatal Gift of Livestock
Chapter 12 Blueprints and Borrowed Characters
Chapter 13: The Mother of Need
Chapter 14: From Egalitarianism to Thief Politics
Part 4 | Detailed Analysis of Six Regions
Chapter 15: Yali's Race
Chapter 16: How did China become China?
Chapter 17: Quick Trip to Polynesia
Chapter 18: Collision of Hemispheres
Chapter 19 How did Africa become a land of black people?
Chapter 20 Who are the Japanese?
Epilogue: The Future of Human History as Science
Late 2017_ Rich and Poor Countries from the Perspective of Guns, Germs, and Steel
Acknowledgements
Translator's Note
clear
References
Search
Introduction_Why is world history like an onion?
Prologue_Yalli's Question
Part 1 | From Eden to Cajamarca
Chapter 1: What happened up until the starting line?
Chapter 2: History's Natural Experiment
Chapter 3: The Conflict at Cajamarca
Part 2 | The Origins and Spread of Food Production
Chapter 4: The Power of Agriculture
Chapter 5: The Haves and Have-Nots in History
Chapter 6: Farming, a Crossroads of Choice
Chapter 7 How to Grow Almonds
Chapter 8: Was it the apples or the Indians?
Chapter 9: Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, and the Anna Karenina Principle
Chapter 10: The Vast Sky and the Tilted Axis
Part 3 | From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel
Chapter 11: The Fatal Gift of Livestock
Chapter 12 Blueprints and Borrowed Characters
Chapter 13: The Mother of Need
Chapter 14: From Egalitarianism to Thief Politics
Part 4 | Detailed Analysis of Six Regions
Chapter 15: Yali's Race
Chapter 16: How did China become China?
Chapter 17: Quick Trip to Polynesia
Chapter 18: Collision of Hemispheres
Chapter 19 How did Africa become a land of black people?
Chapter 20 Who are the Japanese?
Epilogue: The Future of Human History as Science
Late 2017_ Rich and Poor Countries from the Perspective of Guns, Germs, and Steel
Acknowledgements
Translator's Note
clear
References
Search
Detailed image
Into the book
Yali looked at me again with sparkling eyes, as if she had been thinking about all of this for a long time, and asked.
“Why is it that you white people have developed so much cargo and brought it all the way to New Guinea, while we black people have so little cargo of our own?” (…) So the question of inequality in the modern world can be rephrased as follows:
Why is wealth and power distributed the way they are today? Specifically, why weren't Native Americans, Africans, and Australian Aborigines the ones who massacred, subjugated, and exterminated Europeans and Asians?
--- p.26~27
Pizarro entered a foreign land with a ragtag group of 168 Spanish soldiers.
He knew nothing about the local people, (…) but within minutes of the two leaders' first meeting, Pizarro took Atahualpa prisoner.
Pizarro held Atahualpa captive for eight months, then promised to release him, demanding the largest ransom in history.
After receiving enough gold as a ransom to fill a room measuring 6.7 meters long, 5.2 meters wide, and 2.4 meters high, Pizarro went back on his promise and executed Atahualpa.
--- p.108
All animals that can be domesticated are similar, but the reasons for not being domesticated are different.
Have you heard something similar before? Yes.
With just a few words changed, it becomes the famous opening line of Tolstoy's great novel, Anna Karenina.
“Happy families resemble each other; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (…) This rule can be extended to understand many aspects of our lives beyond marriage.
We tend to easily explain success as a single factor.
But to succeed in most important endeavors, you must avoid many factors that are associated with failure.
The Anna Karenina Principle nicely summarizes the profound impact that animal domestication had on human history.
--- p.258
Why might the rise of agriculture have spurred the evolution of mass infectious diseases? One reason is that agriculture, on average, could support 10 to 100 times more people than hunting and gathering.
(…) The emergence of cities was a greater opportunity.
A constant influx of healthy farmers from rural areas to cities filled the void left by city dwellers dying from mass diseases.
The opening of world trade routes was another opportunity for bacteria.
So, in Roman times, that place, where Europeans, Asians, and North Africans mixed together, became a huge breeding ground for germs.
--- p.327~328
China has long rivers running from east to west (the Yellow River in the north and the Yangtze River in the south), which facilitated the spread of crops and science and technology between coastal areas and the inland.
Moreover, the terrain, which stretched widely from east to west, was relatively gentle, and the two rivers were connected by canals, making exchange between the north and south easy.
All these geographical factors enabled China to achieve cultural and political unification early on.
On the other hand, in the case of Western Europe, although the area is similar, the terrain varies greatly in elevation and there is no river that runs through all of Europe, making cultural and political integration difficult even to this day.
--- p.533
Japanese culture underwent more rapid changes during the 700-year Yayoi period than during the 10,000-year Jomon period.
(…) Kyushu is warmer than Korea and has many wetlands, making it advantageous for rice farming.
It must have seemed like heaven to Korean farmers.
According to one estimate, millions of migrants came to Japan from Korea during the Yayoi period, leading to a strong infiltration of Korean genes into the Jomon people.
If this hypothesis is correct, modern Japanese are descendants of Korean immigrants who developed their own unique culture by changing the ancestral customs over the past 2,000 years.
“Why is it that you white people have developed so much cargo and brought it all the way to New Guinea, while we black people have so little cargo of our own?” (…) So the question of inequality in the modern world can be rephrased as follows:
Why is wealth and power distributed the way they are today? Specifically, why weren't Native Americans, Africans, and Australian Aborigines the ones who massacred, subjugated, and exterminated Europeans and Asians?
--- p.26~27
Pizarro entered a foreign land with a ragtag group of 168 Spanish soldiers.
He knew nothing about the local people, (…) but within minutes of the two leaders' first meeting, Pizarro took Atahualpa prisoner.
Pizarro held Atahualpa captive for eight months, then promised to release him, demanding the largest ransom in history.
After receiving enough gold as a ransom to fill a room measuring 6.7 meters long, 5.2 meters wide, and 2.4 meters high, Pizarro went back on his promise and executed Atahualpa.
--- p.108
All animals that can be domesticated are similar, but the reasons for not being domesticated are different.
Have you heard something similar before? Yes.
With just a few words changed, it becomes the famous opening line of Tolstoy's great novel, Anna Karenina.
“Happy families resemble each other; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” (…) This rule can be extended to understand many aspects of our lives beyond marriage.
We tend to easily explain success as a single factor.
But to succeed in most important endeavors, you must avoid many factors that are associated with failure.
The Anna Karenina Principle nicely summarizes the profound impact that animal domestication had on human history.
--- p.258
Why might the rise of agriculture have spurred the evolution of mass infectious diseases? One reason is that agriculture, on average, could support 10 to 100 times more people than hunting and gathering.
(…) The emergence of cities was a greater opportunity.
A constant influx of healthy farmers from rural areas to cities filled the void left by city dwellers dying from mass diseases.
The opening of world trade routes was another opportunity for bacteria.
So, in Roman times, that place, where Europeans, Asians, and North Africans mixed together, became a huge breeding ground for germs.
--- p.327~328
China has long rivers running from east to west (the Yellow River in the north and the Yangtze River in the south), which facilitated the spread of crops and science and technology between coastal areas and the inland.
Moreover, the terrain, which stretched widely from east to west, was relatively gentle, and the two rivers were connected by canals, making exchange between the north and south easy.
All these geographical factors enabled China to achieve cultural and political unification early on.
On the other hand, in the case of Western Europe, although the area is similar, the terrain varies greatly in elevation and there is no river that runs through all of Europe, making cultural and political integration difficult even to this day.
--- p.533
Japanese culture underwent more rapid changes during the 700-year Yayoi period than during the 10,000-year Jomon period.
(…) Kyushu is warmer than Korea and has many wetlands, making it advantageous for rice farming.
It must have seemed like heaven to Korean farmers.
According to one estimate, millions of migrants came to Japan from Korea during the Yayoi period, leading to a strong infiltration of Korean genes into the Jomon people.
If this hypothesis is correct, modern Japanese are descendants of Korean immigrants who developed their own unique culture by changing the ancestral customs over the past 2,000 years.
--- p.666~667
Publisher's Review
★★★ Seoul National University Library ranks first in longest-term loans
★★★ Top 10 National Library of Korea Loans
★★★ "20 Recommended Books for College Freshmen," selected by the Publication Ethics Committee
★★★ Professors' Top 10 Books to Read Again
★★★ Selected as one of the New York Times' "100 Books to Read Before You Die"
Jared Diamond's masterpiece on civilization studies
A modern classic that illuminates the mystery of the creation and prosperity of civilization.
The world-renowned work "Guns, Germs, and Steel," which contains groundbreaking insights into human history, has been republished.
This book is a masterpiece by Jared Diamond, a great intellectual who crosses academic boundaries from cultural anthropology to history, science, and future prospects.
He won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for his work, which overturned conventional wisdom about history and presented a new perspective on the creation and prosperity of civilization.
Why are some nations rich and others poor? Why are some peoples subject to conquest and domination by others? Why did Eurasians, rather than the indigenous peoples of America, Africa, or Australia, command the world's wealth and power? Guns, Germs, and Steel unravels the grand history of humanity through a convergence of diverse disciplines—biology, geography, anthropology, history, and linguistics—and comprehensively examines the causes of the inequality in the modern world today.
This book, which shook the media and academic world immediately upon its publication, has been translated into 43 languages and sold millions of copies, becoming a global bestseller.
It is widely read around the world and is called “a must-read before graduating from college” (Washington Post).
In Korea, it is famous for being ranked as the 'longest-running library loan at Seoul National University', 'top 10 most-loaned library at the National Central Library', and '20 recommended books for college freshmen' selected by the Publication Ethics Committee.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, he has also won the British Science Publishing Award, the Japanese Cosmos Award, and the California Book Award.
It has become a classic as an overwhelming narrative that provides new insight into the crises and opportunities facing humanity.
“This is the book that changed me from a medieval war historian to an anthropologist.
"It gave me the courage to write Sapiens." ─ Yuval Harari, Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“If you had to read only one of Jared Diamond’s books, it would definitely be Guns, Germs, and Steel.
“It laid the foundation for understanding human history.” ─ Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft
Tracing the trajectory of human history and civilization development
A groundbreaking study comprehensively identifying the causes of inequality in the world today.
Professor Jared Diamond is a scientist who clearly explains social issues and is always called upon to offer suggestions on the changes and prospects of civilization.
Although he is considered a world-renowned cultural anthropologist and civilization researcher, he did not initially major in anthropology.
While working as a professor of physiology, he began his research in evolutionary biology in 1964 while observing birds in New Guinea.
Since then, the research area has expanded to include geography, biogeography, environmental history that studies the interaction between ecosystems and humans, and cultural anthropology.
In the process, he wrote books on the important questions inherent in human society for a global audience.
“I have come to realize that the future of our children’s generation depends on whether we can successfully address the critical challenges threatening our world in the coming decades.
This is a complex problem of human society, geography and history.
So, at the age of 50, I decided to change my career and write a book to make the problem known to many people and at the same time find a solution.
“In ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel,’ I sought to answer the most profound question in human history.” ─ From the ‘2023 Special Preface’
Jared Diamond's unique comparative research across Europe, America, Australia, and East Asia, combined with his comprehensive knowledge gained from both the laboratory and the field, truly shines in Guns, Germs, and Steel.
By approaching human history from a natural scientific perspective, he sharply argues that environmental differences have had a significant impact on human history and the development of civilization.
This is precisely the most important significance of this book.
Guns, Germs, and Steel dispels the biological prejudice that innate superiority and inferiority between races or ethnicities has caused the current world's imbalances, and breaks away from Western-centric worldviews and racist theories of history.
No society is inherently superior or inferior.
This is a monumental work that transcends the past, present, and future of civilization, and overturns common sense about ourselves, us, and the world.
A question that runs through the core of 13,000 years of human history.
How did guns, germs, and steel change the fate of human society?
Why did human history unfold differently across continents? Why did guns, germs, and steel develop first in Eurasia? What impact did the domestication of plants and animals have on the formation of civilization? Jared Diamond questions these questions, tracing the trajectory of civilization back 13,000 years ago, when all humans lived by hunting and gathering.
Part 1, "From Eden to Cajamarca," prepares us to explore the impact of the continent's environment on human society over 13,000 years.
It outlines the Polynesian societies that developed differently depending on the world and environment just before the rise of civilization, and reconstructs the conflict between Spain and the Inca Empire at Cajamarca to prove that 'guns, germs, and steel' were the proximate factors that enabled Europe to conquer the Americas.
Part 2, 'The Origins and Spread of Food Production,' is a process of finding out what the ultimate factors were that gave rise to such proximate factors.
The method of securing food through food production, that is, farming and livestock raising, rather than hunting and gathering, was a prerequisite for the development of guns, germs, and steel.
However, the domestication of plants and animals began independently only in some regions, such as the Fertile Crescent, and the timing of their initiation also varied greatly from region to region.
This was due to environmental factors including geographical location, climate, ecological barriers, and the central axis of the continent.
Food production spread more rapidly in Eurasia, where the axis was east-west, than in America, where the axis was north-south.
Part 3, "From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel," meticulously traces the links between proximate and ultimate factors, persuasively explaining not only military power (guns), infectious diseases (germs), and science and technology (steel), but also the origins of writing, nations, and religion.
More deadly epidemics emerged in Eurasia, where there were many animals to domesticate.
The surplus food from food production led to the creation of new science and technology, writing, and political organizations.
In other words, food production made possible more food, larger populations, politically centralized and socially stratified societies, as well as economically complex and scientifically innovative societies.
Part 4, ‘Specific Analysis of Six Regions’, is the stage where we apply what we have proven in Parts 2 and 3.
By analyzing archaeological and linguistic evidence of population movements and conflicts that occurred in six regions—Australia and New Guinea, China and East Asia, mainland Asia and Pacific islands, Europe and America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Korea and Japan—we ultimately confirm that the reason human history unfolded differently across continents is due to environmental differences.
★★★ Top 10 National Library of Korea Loans
★★★ "20 Recommended Books for College Freshmen," selected by the Publication Ethics Committee
★★★ Professors' Top 10 Books to Read Again
★★★ Selected as one of the New York Times' "100 Books to Read Before You Die"
Jared Diamond's masterpiece on civilization studies
A modern classic that illuminates the mystery of the creation and prosperity of civilization.
The world-renowned work "Guns, Germs, and Steel," which contains groundbreaking insights into human history, has been republished.
This book is a masterpiece by Jared Diamond, a great intellectual who crosses academic boundaries from cultural anthropology to history, science, and future prospects.
He won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for his work, which overturned conventional wisdom about history and presented a new perspective on the creation and prosperity of civilization.
Why are some nations rich and others poor? Why are some peoples subject to conquest and domination by others? Why did Eurasians, rather than the indigenous peoples of America, Africa, or Australia, command the world's wealth and power? Guns, Germs, and Steel unravels the grand history of humanity through a convergence of diverse disciplines—biology, geography, anthropology, history, and linguistics—and comprehensively examines the causes of the inequality in the modern world today.
This book, which shook the media and academic world immediately upon its publication, has been translated into 43 languages and sold millions of copies, becoming a global bestseller.
It is widely read around the world and is called “a must-read before graduating from college” (Washington Post).
In Korea, it is famous for being ranked as the 'longest-running library loan at Seoul National University', 'top 10 most-loaned library at the National Central Library', and '20 recommended books for college freshmen' selected by the Publication Ethics Committee.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, he has also won the British Science Publishing Award, the Japanese Cosmos Award, and the California Book Award.
It has become a classic as an overwhelming narrative that provides new insight into the crises and opportunities facing humanity.
“This is the book that changed me from a medieval war historian to an anthropologist.
"It gave me the courage to write Sapiens." ─ Yuval Harari, Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“If you had to read only one of Jared Diamond’s books, it would definitely be Guns, Germs, and Steel.
“It laid the foundation for understanding human history.” ─ Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft
Tracing the trajectory of human history and civilization development
A groundbreaking study comprehensively identifying the causes of inequality in the world today.
Professor Jared Diamond is a scientist who clearly explains social issues and is always called upon to offer suggestions on the changes and prospects of civilization.
Although he is considered a world-renowned cultural anthropologist and civilization researcher, he did not initially major in anthropology.
While working as a professor of physiology, he began his research in evolutionary biology in 1964 while observing birds in New Guinea.
Since then, the research area has expanded to include geography, biogeography, environmental history that studies the interaction between ecosystems and humans, and cultural anthropology.
In the process, he wrote books on the important questions inherent in human society for a global audience.
“I have come to realize that the future of our children’s generation depends on whether we can successfully address the critical challenges threatening our world in the coming decades.
This is a complex problem of human society, geography and history.
So, at the age of 50, I decided to change my career and write a book to make the problem known to many people and at the same time find a solution.
“In ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel,’ I sought to answer the most profound question in human history.” ─ From the ‘2023 Special Preface’
Jared Diamond's unique comparative research across Europe, America, Australia, and East Asia, combined with his comprehensive knowledge gained from both the laboratory and the field, truly shines in Guns, Germs, and Steel.
By approaching human history from a natural scientific perspective, he sharply argues that environmental differences have had a significant impact on human history and the development of civilization.
This is precisely the most important significance of this book.
Guns, Germs, and Steel dispels the biological prejudice that innate superiority and inferiority between races or ethnicities has caused the current world's imbalances, and breaks away from Western-centric worldviews and racist theories of history.
No society is inherently superior or inferior.
This is a monumental work that transcends the past, present, and future of civilization, and overturns common sense about ourselves, us, and the world.
A question that runs through the core of 13,000 years of human history.
How did guns, germs, and steel change the fate of human society?
Why did human history unfold differently across continents? Why did guns, germs, and steel develop first in Eurasia? What impact did the domestication of plants and animals have on the formation of civilization? Jared Diamond questions these questions, tracing the trajectory of civilization back 13,000 years ago, when all humans lived by hunting and gathering.
Part 1, "From Eden to Cajamarca," prepares us to explore the impact of the continent's environment on human society over 13,000 years.
It outlines the Polynesian societies that developed differently depending on the world and environment just before the rise of civilization, and reconstructs the conflict between Spain and the Inca Empire at Cajamarca to prove that 'guns, germs, and steel' were the proximate factors that enabled Europe to conquer the Americas.
Part 2, 'The Origins and Spread of Food Production,' is a process of finding out what the ultimate factors were that gave rise to such proximate factors.
The method of securing food through food production, that is, farming and livestock raising, rather than hunting and gathering, was a prerequisite for the development of guns, germs, and steel.
However, the domestication of plants and animals began independently only in some regions, such as the Fertile Crescent, and the timing of their initiation also varied greatly from region to region.
This was due to environmental factors including geographical location, climate, ecological barriers, and the central axis of the continent.
Food production spread more rapidly in Eurasia, where the axis was east-west, than in America, where the axis was north-south.
Part 3, "From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel," meticulously traces the links between proximate and ultimate factors, persuasively explaining not only military power (guns), infectious diseases (germs), and science and technology (steel), but also the origins of writing, nations, and religion.
More deadly epidemics emerged in Eurasia, where there were many animals to domesticate.
The surplus food from food production led to the creation of new science and technology, writing, and political organizations.
In other words, food production made possible more food, larger populations, politically centralized and socially stratified societies, as well as economically complex and scientifically innovative societies.
Part 4, ‘Specific Analysis of Six Regions’, is the stage where we apply what we have proven in Parts 2 and 3.
By analyzing archaeological and linguistic evidence of population movements and conflicts that occurred in six regions—Australia and New Guinea, China and East Asia, mainland Asia and Pacific islands, Europe and America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Korea and Japan—we ultimately confirm that the reason human history unfolded differently across continents is due to environmental differences.
GOODS SPECIFICS
- Date of issue: May 10, 2023
- Page count, weight, size: 784 pages | 1,168g | 152*215*40mm
- ISBN13: 9788934942467
- ISBN10: 8934942460
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