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Originally posted by notcasesensitive
What did you think about the language segments in Guns, Germs and Steel? I thought they seemed fairly well researched. And the spread of the Asiatic languages across the Pacific seems quite helpful for pinpointing who did what and where. If you have read that book, you can do a search here for posts relating to it. I haven't read the book that you reference, but I'd be interested to know if it is worth reading when you are finished.
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I was blown away by Guns Germs and Steel. I found it very convincing and the stories were great. The most fascinating, I found, was the story of the New Zealanders that went to that island and reverted to Hunter Gatherers because that was all the Geography would allow. And then their long lost relatives came a hundred years later and slaughtered them. Did you see the PBS special on it? It was pretty good. He added some new ideas that I am pretty sure were not in the book. He argued that one of the major reasons that Subsaharn Africa is so backward is because of malaria. Before European civilization the African natives lived on high ground, a way from the mosquitos, and did not live in high density areas. So Malaria wasn't much of a problem. But now that they have adopted western ways, they live near rivers and lakes and in high density cities and hence they have huge mortality rates with Malaria. Jareed thinks this prevent the Africans form developing. I don't think that was in the book.
Have you read his new book on the reason why civilizations decline?
