Has anyone been watching the "Guns, Germs, and Steel" program on PBS?

[trotsky]

I've caught a couple of episodes now and it's quite interesting. The author of the book on which it's based points out that something like 12 of the 14 major domesticated animals all originated in Eurasia, giving people in that region a "jump start" on the road to agriculture and technology.

Last night's episode talked about the discovery and conquest of the "New World," analyzing why it was so easy for Europeans to come and conquer. An interesting phenomenon that was pointed out was how Eurasia and the Americas as gigantic land masses are oriented 90 degrees from each other. Crops and animals that did well in the "fertile crescent" generally spread easily along the same lines of latitude throughout Eurasia. But it was a different story in the Americas, where a trek the long way across the land mass was north to south, resulting in continually changing climates, sun exposure, etc. And with only one native "beast of burden" (the llama in S. America), people didn't have the help with agriculture necessary to free up time to develop technology.

Anyway, I've found it fascinating to watch and was wondering if anyone else had any thoughts on it!

[AngryAmish]

1. Read the book

One of the problems with no domestic animals in the americas is we killed them all when we got here via Bering Straight. We were hunters and gatherers, not agrarians. There was a huge mega-extinction of large animals by man.

[trotsky]

4. It's made me want to get it.

Good point about the kill-off in the Americas.

I love this kind of historical analysis - looking at the little circumstances that end up shaping history in a major way.

[enlightenment]

6. Get his new one, also.

Called "Collapse" -- about civilizations.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. thx for the reminder.... the book has been recommended to me a bunch

[Lorien]

3. No, but the book was great. The author, Jared Diamond, is an amazing

student and authority on so many subjects (another good one-though somewhat depressing-is his "the third chimpanzee"). Unfortunately I can't get PBS around here without cable, but I'm hoping that the series ends up on Netflix eventually.

[trotsky]

5. He provides commentary throughout the episodes

and I really like his thinking.

[Nikia]

7. I read the Germs, Guns, and Steel too

Now I am reading Collapse. It shows the good of being able to integrate science and history.

[YankeyMCC]

8. I've seen bits and parts of the pbs show

But read both "Guns, germs and Steel" as well as "Collapse" Very Interesting and I think enlightening.

At the very least the books (and the show) bring up important ideas and have the potential to start a valuable converstation in political and scientific worlds.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Read the book. Agreed with a lot of stuff I had sorta suspected...

but wasn't sure how seriously to take because I wasn't familiar with a whole plethora of facts he brought to the argument. The big thing to me was his knowledge of the genetic history of grains and other staple crops. (Diamond is an evolutionary botanist, IIRC? Maybe an ecologist.) Seemingly small effects, but they add up, and even "snowball."

[politicat]

10. Geography and physiology

According to the jacket on Collapse....