Why are human societies going in different directions and progressed in varying paces? While many countries in Western Europe have grown rapidly and developed countless technological advancements, others, such as Jamaica in Africa, are still dependent on mining and agriculture. Jared Diamond, geographer, anthropologist, and historian, intends to provide an ultimate explanation to this critical question in his book Guns, Germs, and Steel. With a unique background in biology and biogeography, Diamond takes a fresh, multi-disciplinary approach to the old idea that societal development is influenced by the environment, examining civilizations across the globe, beyond Eurasia, and throughout the human past.

While studying bird evolution in New Guinea, Diamond acquainted a politician named Yali who asked him the question, “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?” Cargo refers to the technology and tools westerners developed, and Yali’s question is a reflection of the aforementioned question that Diamond attempts to answer with Guns, Germs, and Steel. Before diving into his own, Diamond first points out flaws in popular explanations. He reminds us that though the “proximate explanation is clear”: society advanced to power as they developed guns, germs, and steel, historians tend to focus on the recent literate Eurasian civilizations and questions regarding origins remain. In writing this book and providing an overarching explanation to Yali’s question, Diamond hopes to not only fill the “intellectual gap” of human history but also the “moral gap” that gives people reasons to believe in racism.

Diamond starts his first chapter by posing the “head start” question: During the early days of mankind, did the people of some continent already have an advantage over others? Perhaps such an advantage would prove to be the answer to Yali’s question. Thus, Diamond recounts the earliest Homo sapiens tales that might have amplified these advantages. There must be more intricate reasons for why Eurasians became the most powerful, and Diamond proceeds to explain differences in the environment, which is categorized by Diamond as climate, geological type, marine resources, terrain fragmentation, and isolation, can create substantial social gaps.

To elaborate on his thesis regarding the impact of the environment without being categorized as inaccurate or environmentally deterministic, Diamond sheds new light on human history by integrating his expertise in the biological sciences and provides solid arguments as well as evidence that did not rely on individual’s innate abilities. Some believe that Diamond answered Yali’s question with the straightforward theme of the environment but goes into much more detail of how people’s surroundings and extra somatic conditions narrowed their fates in the future.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is an informative and delightful book”, but not flawless. To fill in the missing gaps, readers should read additional works from renowned authors like The Nature of Economies by Jane Jacobs or The Nature of Technology by Brian Arthur that provides further breadth and depth into the complex subject composed of culture, art, environment, and technology that is human history.