Guns, Germs and Steel
The Fate of Human Societies
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Guns, Germs and Steel
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Narrated by:
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Doug Ordunio
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By:
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Jared Diamond
About this listen
Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 1998
Guns, Germs and Steel examines the rise of civilization and the issues its development has raised throughout history.
Having done field work in New Guinea for more than 30 years, Jared Diamond presents the geographical and ecological factors that have shaped the modern world. From the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist, he highlights the broadest movements both literal and conceptual on every continent since the Ice Age, and examines societal advances such as writing, religion, government, and technology. Diamond also dissects racial theories of global history, and the resulting work—Guns, Germs and Steel—is a major contribution to our understanding the evolution of human societies.
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 93
In this landmark work of environmental history, William Cronon offers an original and profound explanation of the effects European colonists' sense of property and their pursuit of capitalism had upon the ecosystems of New England. Reissued here with an updated afterword by the author and a new preface by the distinguished colonialist John Demos, Changes in the Land provides a brilliant interdisciplinary interpretation of how land and people influence one another.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent histgory and ecology
- By Eugene Gallagher on 09-26-20
By: William Cronon
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1491
- New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
- By: Charles C. Mann
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,742
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,219
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,205
Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus' landing had crossed the Bering Strait 12,000 years ago; existed mainly in small nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas were, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last 30 years proving these and many other long-held assumptions wrong.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Exposes Non-Academic Audience to The Debate Between Ideas of Pre-Colombian America's
- By Christopher on 01-19-17
By: Charles C. Mann
-
Unbound
- How Eight Technologies Made Us Human, Transformed Society, and Brought Our World to the Brink
- By: Richard L. Currier
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 244
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 215
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 214
Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good facts, not much else
- By Joel B. Gordon on 10-30-16
-
Dark Emu
- Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?
- By: Bruce Pascoe
- Narrated by: Bruce Pascoe
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
Dark Emu argues for a reconsideration of the 'hunter-gatherer' tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to rebut the colonial myths that have worked to justify dispossession. Accomplished author Bruce Pascoe provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers that suggests that systems of food production and land management have been understated in modern retellings of Aboriginal history, and that a new look at Australia's past is required.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
One of the best books ever!!!!
- By Matt Powers on 05-07-18
By: Bruce Pascoe
-
Ancestral Journeys
- The Peopling of Europe from the First Venturers to the Vikings (Revised and Updated Edition)
- By: Jean Manco
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
This paradigm-shifting book paints a spirited portrait of a restless people that challenges our established ways of looking at Europe's past. The story is more complex than at first believed, with new evidence suggesting that the European gene pool was stirred vigorously multiple times. Genetic clues are also enhancing our understanding of European mobility in epochs with written records, including the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, the spread of the Slavs, and the adventures of the Vikings.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Needs pictures.
- By Ray on 11-21-20
By: Jean Manco
-
Before the Dawn
- Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
- By: Nicholas Wade
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 934
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 524
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 525
Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings, driven by revelations discovered in the human genome, has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries about our most ancient ancestors, the people who first evolved in Africa and then went on to colonize the whole world. Nicholas Wade weaves this host of news-making findings together for the first time into an intriguing new history of the human story before the dawn of civilization.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing information
- By Albert on 06-15-07
By: Nicholas Wade
-
Pandora's Seed
- The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization
- By: Spencer Wells
- Narrated by: Spencer Wells
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 169
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 68
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 69
This new book by Spencer Wells, the internationally known geneticist, anthropologist, author, and director of the Genographic Project, focuses on the seminal event in human history: mankind's decision to become farmers rather than hunter-gatherers.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Short and unfocused, but often quite interesting.
- By Alan on 06-23-10
By: Spencer Wells
-
Bison and People on the North American Great Plains
- A Deep Environmental History
- By: Geoff Cunfer, Bill Waiser
- Narrated by: Chuck Buell
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 21
This audiobook explores the deep past and examines the latest knowledge on bison anatomy and physiology, how bison responded to climate change (especially drought), and early bison hunters and pre-contact trade. It also focuses on the era of European contact, in particular the arrival of the horse, and some of the first known instances of over-hunting. By the 19th century, bison reached a "tipping point" as a result of new tanning practices, an early attempt at protective legislation, and ventures to introducing cattle as a replacement stock.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Buffalo Gone Baby Gone
- By Jim on 03-24-18
By: Geoff Cunfer, and others
-
First Peoples in a New World
- Colonizing Ice Age America
- By: David J. Meltzer
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 11 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 179
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 152
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 151
More than 12,000 years ago, in one of the greatest triumphs of prehistory, humans colonized North America, a continent that was then truly a new world. Just when and how they did so has been one of the most perplexing and controversial questions in archaeology.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Last Gasp of American Anthropological Orthodoxy
- By Thomas66 on 01-05-17
By: David J. Meltzer
-
The Great Warming
- Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
- By: Brian Fagan
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 103
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
The history of the Great Warming of a half millennium ago suggests that we may yet be underestimating the power of climate change to disrupt our lives todayand our vulnerability to drought, writes Fagan, is the silent elephant in the room.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Good book but unpracticed, disjointed narration.
- By Paul on 09-12-10
By: Brian Fagan
-
The Statues That Walked
- Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island
- By: Terry Hunt, Carl Lipo
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 442
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 380
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 386
The monumental statues of Easter Island, both so magisterial and so forlorn, gazing out in their imposing rows over the island’s barren landscape, have been the source of great mystery ever since the island was first discovered by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722. How could the ancient people who inhabited this tiny speck of land, the most remote in the vast expanse of the Pacific islands, have built such monumental works?
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
The "Mystery of Easter Island" remains raveled
- By Diane on 09-14-12
By: Terry Hunt, and others
-
Lesser Beasts
- A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig
- By: Mark Essig
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 711
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 644
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 639
As historian Mark Essig reveals in Lesser Beasts, swine have such a bad reputation for precisely the same reasons they are so valuable as a source of food: they are intelligent, self-sufficient, and omnivorous. What's more, he argues, we ignore our historic partnership with these astonishing animals at our peril.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Virtuous Carnivors?
- By David on 04-14-16
By: Mark Essig
-
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language
- How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
- By: David W. Anthony
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 701
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 591
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 585
Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? The Horse, the Wheel, and Language solves a puzzle that has vexed scholars for two centuries and recovers a magnificent and influential civilization from the past.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent
- By Anthony on 08-09-19
By: David W. Anthony
-
1493
- Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
- By: Charles C. Mann
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,119
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,769
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,768
More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, he ended that separation at a stroke. Driven by the economic goal of establishing trade with China, he accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European vessels carried thousands of species to new homes across the oceans.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating Mindbending History.
- By Betsy Powel on 12-19-11
By: Charles C. Mann
-
Clash of Cultures
- Prehistory-1638
- By: Christopher Collier, James Lincoln Collier
- Narrated by: Jim Manchester
- Length: 1 hr and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 272
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 243
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 241
History is dramatic - and the renowned, award-winning authors Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier demonstrate this in this compelling series aimed at young listeners. Covering American history from the founding of Jamestown through the present day, these volumes explore far beyond the dates and events of a historical chronicle to present a moving illumination of the ideas, opinions, attitudes and tribulations that led to the birth of this great nation.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
good context
- By MonicaB on 03-03-20
By: Christopher Collier, and others
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An Historic Achievement
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Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having provoked as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it. His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands to rethink their beliefs about life.
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Better than print!
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It was on the Silk Roads that East and West first encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas, cultures, and religions. From the rise and fall of empires to the spread of Buddhism and the advent of Christianity and Islam, right up to the great wars of the 20th century - this book shows how the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East.
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An Absolutely SUPERB Book for Lovers of History
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Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus' landing had crossed the Bering Strait 12,000 years ago; existed mainly in small nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas were, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last 30 years proving these and many other long-held assumptions wrong.
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Exposes Non-Academic Audience to The Debate Between Ideas of Pre-Colombian America's
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A People's History of the United States
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For much of his life, historian Howard Zinn chronicled American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version taught in schools - with its emphasis on great men in high places - to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History of the United States is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of - and in the words of - America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.
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Amateur hour in the production booth
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Nexus
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 941
For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Painfully boring
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Why Nations Fail
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,707
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,696
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?
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4 out of 5 stars
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Pros and Cons of "Why Nations Fail"
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21 Lessons for the 21st Century
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,746
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 11,751
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 11,665
Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today's most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing
- By Noah Lugeons on 09-11-18
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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
- Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
- By: David S. Landes
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 21 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is David S. Landes' acclaimed, best-selling exploration of one of the most contentious and hotly debated questions of our time: Why do some nations achieve economic success while others remain mired in poverty? The answer, as Landes definitively illustrates, is a complex interplay of cultural mores and historical circumstance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A detailed explanation
- By Kaarlis on 12-07-21
By: David S. Landes
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Cosmos
- A Personal Voyage
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: LeVar Burton, Seth MacFarlane, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,476
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,483
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,444
Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Over-acting voice actors
- By John on 11-09-17
By: Carl Sagan
What listeners say about Guns, Germs and Steel
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michelle
- 08-20-16
Brilliant!
Incredible analysis of human civilization! While it can be repetitive or dry in some areas, this could be improved with access of maps or Wikipedia as an adjunct to the audiobook.
The narration is a little off -- with sometimes jarring transitions in narration and a very annoying regional pronunciation of 'W's -- but is workable.
Strongly recommend for anyone with a curious mind.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrea
- 11-21-13
Very interesting much deeper then the tv show
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, its a very good book. Well writen and well explained.
What other book might you compare Guns, Germs and Steel to and why?
Nothing I have yet read. Though I hope to find others.
What about Doug Ordunio’s performance did you like?
Clear and well voiced.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
History: A real world story
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mau
- 04-07-20
Phenomenal
Amazing work by Jared Diamond. Highly recommend for any readers who desire to further educate themselves on the progress of humanity, the concepts of race and culture, and how our cultures and current world have developed.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- John L
- 03-19-21
theory's debunked through deeper research
while the historical analysis is considerable, the emphasis lacks the overarching elements that other historians have used to debunk this book's conclusions.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Curtis
- 12-22-17
Similar to Sapiens
having red sapiens first this book was just a duplicate story in a lot of ways. Maybe it would have been better had it in the first time I read it
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lorenzo Coopman
- 05-17-19
This book deserves better!
It's a brilliant book, the author has a very ambitious and all spanning theory about human history and evolution. However the voice performance is so flat I'm quite sure I missed nearly half of the book. This needs an update!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Dan Collins
- 08-27-21
Why Them and Not Us? Why Us and not Them?
This book tries to explain the factors that contribute to the rise of civilizations. It is special in that it does not overly focus on one civilization but instead attempts to look across civilizations to try to find the underlying factors (if there are any) that explain why one society dominates over another. As a computer engineer, I found this book to be satisfying in its explanation and was surprised at how much of a factor germs played in the way our globe had progressed over the years. It has been said that the world belongs to the microscopic. This book will explain why that is not as crazy as it sounds.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Felix Cavazos
- 12-30-20
Perfect if this is your cup of tea
I loved the topic so I enjoyed the listen. But it's long and you may feel like in class.
There's a few mention of dates that may confuse some listeners but overall the book is easy to understand and enjoyable.
The writer gives each topic its own time so if you don't like the botanical stuff then you may be more interested on the language part at the end fir example.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 11-14-21
The book is fantastic but the narration is not.
The narrator reads in a consistent robotic melodic tone that is disconnected from the content, making it very hard to follow the material . This tonal reading also breaks sentence structure , nuance and emphasis making it very monotonous and tiring to follow. Highly do not recommend this narrator .
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- mom10
- 05-20-19
Thought it was great
This is a book which, for me, greatly benefited from the Books on Tape aspect. Would have been tough to stick with it otherwise, but having it read kept things moving forward. While repetitive at times (to all authors: please edit aggressively!), the integrative scholarship involved was extremely impressive and I found his conclusions very compelling. A boon to mankind and an antidote to racial bigotry.
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1 person found this helpful