Topic summary

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (subtitled A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years in Britain) is a 1997 transdisciplinary nonfiction book by the American author Jared Diamond. The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent geneticsuperiority. A documentary based on the book, and produced by the National Geographic Society, was broadcast on PBS in July 2005.