here's another comment on Diamond's GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL, by Barkley Rosser, a pen-l alumnus. >From: "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "Jim Devine" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > "Brad De Long" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: more on Diamond >Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 18:20:12 -0400 >X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3155.0 > >Over the weekend I took a closer look at Diamond's book in light of the >discussion I have seen. My opinion is somewhat improved, although one >should really look at some of the books it draws on. It is well done, but >quite a bit of this has been >said before. However, Diamond does a fair job of mentioning such works in >his Readings section in the back, noting McNeill's book as being >especially influential (McNeill wrote a praising blurb on the dust cover >that I saw). Also, Zinsser was published in 1935 by Little Brown out of >Boston. >It has been well known for some time that disease played a major role in >the conquest of Austronesia and the Americas. The question thus still >gets back to Africa as I mentioned before. I looked closely at his >discussion of this and think he makes some plausible points. One is this >business about the east-west axis versus the north-south axis, that it is >easier to transfer crops and technologies east-west as could be done in >Eurasia than north-south which is the axis in Africa. That may be the >biggie, actually. Diamond clearly recognizes that Africans have more >disease resistance than Eurasians and also argues that the other crucial >factor was the lack of easily domesticated animals in Africa that was a >key, relative to Eurasia, and raises the spectre of Africans on rhinos >conquering Rome. >I miswrote before about dogs and measles. Measles came from rinderpest >from cattle, but not a big deal. Diamond does >link even some of the diseases from wild animals with crop production, an >interesting point. Malaria, an African originated disease, and one of the >really big killers, tended to arise near agricultural villages. Also, >bubonic plague, although from wild rats, was tied to crop production as >the rats tended to be attracted by grains. >I'm still not sure it is the great work of genius of the 1990s, but it >does a pretty credible job and deals with quite a few difficult >issues. It is also nice to see an effort to come up with a non-racist >explanation for this stuff. >Barkley Rosser Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~jdevine
