{"id":57880,"date":"2020-06-15T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=57880"},"modified":"2020-06-15T08:37:35","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T12:37:35","slug":"african-history-disproves-guns-germs-and-steel-by-jared-diamond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2020\/06\/15\/african-history-disproves-guns-germs-and-steel-by-jared-diamond\/","title":{"rendered":"African History Disproves <em>Guns Germs and Steel<\/em> by Jared Diamond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2OQmvRUdr3U\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>The Cynical Historian<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished 26 Oct 2019<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a question in the history profession that if sufficiently answered could not only reshape how we conceive ourselves, but reveal the best course of action for politics around the world. What makes the West strong? While there are many answers, the most popular of these has been Jared Diamond&#8217;s <em>Guns Germs and Steel<\/em>. You&#8217;ll see his argument all over the place, including a NatGeo documentary. But of course it has its detractors, to the point that some historians consider it pseudo-history. Now I think that&#8217;s going too far, but there are enough problems with his thesis that we can&#8217;t take it as the final answer to these questions. So let&#8217;s talk about that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<br \/>\nerrata<br \/>\n10:32 &#8211; not &#8220;Blaut&#8217;s theory&#8221; but &#8220;Diamond&#8217;s theory&#8221; (thx PunkSci)<br \/>\n&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>references:<br \/>\nJames M. Blaut, <em>Eight Eurocentric Historians: The Colonizer\u2019s Model of the World, Volume Two<\/em> (New York: The Guilford Press, 2000), 149-172. <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2YFt0iQ\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/2YFt0iQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Michael C. Campbell and Sarah A. Tishkoff, &#8220;African Genetic Diversity: Implications for Human Demographic History, Modern Human Origins, and Complex Disease Mapping,&#8221; <em>Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics<\/em> 9 (22 September 2008): 403-433.<\/p>\n<p>Jared Diamond, <em>Guns Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies<\/em> (New York: WW Norton, 1997). <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2GK6AqI\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/2GK6AqI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Martin W. Lewis and Karen E. Wigen, <em>The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography<\/em> (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2H0ylv7\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/amzn.to\/2H0ylv7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Richard York and Philip Mancus, &#8220;Diamond in the Rough: Reflections on Guns, Germs, and Steel,&#8221; <em>Human Ecology Review<\/em> 14, no. 2 (2007): 157-162.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thetruesize.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/thetruesize.com<\/a><br \/>\n&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<br \/>\nSupport the channel through PATREON: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/CynicalHistorian\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/CynicalHistorian<\/a><\/p>\n<p>LET&#8217;S CONNECT:<br \/>\nSubreddit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CynicalHistory\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CynicalHistory\/<\/a><br \/>\nDiscord: <a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/Ukthk4U\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/discord.gg\/Ukthk4U<\/a><br \/>\nTwitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cynical_History\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cynical_History<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screenshot_2020-06-15-African-History-Disproves-Guns-Germs-and-Steel-by-Jared-Diamond.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screenshot_2020-06-15-African-History-Disproves-Guns-Germs-and-Steel-by-Jared-Diamond-480x270.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-57886\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screenshot_2020-06-15-African-History-Disproves-Guns-Germs-and-Steel-by-Jared-Diamond-480x270.png 480w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screenshot_2020-06-15-African-History-Disproves-Guns-Germs-and-Steel-by-Jared-Diamond-853x480.png 853w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screenshot_2020-06-15-African-History-Disproves-Guns-Germs-and-Steel-by-Jared-Diamond-150x84.png 150w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screenshot_2020-06-15-African-History-Disproves-Guns-Germs-and-Steel-by-Jared-Diamond-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screenshot_2020-06-15-African-History-Disproves-Guns-Germs-and-Steel-by-Jared-Diamond.png 930w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cynical Historian Published 26 Oct 2019 There&#8217;s a question in the history profession that if sufficiently answered could not only reshape how we conceive ourselves, but reveal the best course of action for politics around the world. What makes the West strong? While there are many answers, the most popular of these has been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[362,32,25,65,7,15],"tags":[635,1011,86,347,924],"class_list":["post-57880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-books","category-economics","category-environment","category-history","category-technology","tag-biodiversity","tag-colonialism","tag-criticism","tag-debunking","tag-farming"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-f3y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57887,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57880\/revisions\/57887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}