Human Societies

Book Analysis: Prompt and Guidelines   Book: Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.   Overview: Students will read and assess Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. Upon reading the book, students will compose a 1000-1500-word analysis of Diamond’s account of evolutionary human history. In order to best complete the analysis, students are to base their writing around the below essay prompt.   Prompt: Coming from a science-oriented background, Jared Diamond presents a world history of human evolution across all the earth’s major continents in an attempt to equally track human progression. According to Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, why is it – as Yali asks the question – that the Europeans succeeded in conquering much of the world? Does Diamond effectively answer this question with science alone? And what factors according to Diamond allowed for certain civilizations, namely Eurasia, to advance quicker than others?   Guidelines: Ordinarily book reviews focus on the author and how well/poor the author does with their respective books. For an analysis, both the author is important, but the focus is on the content (history). Your analysis should gravitate around the message and information that is laid out in Diamond’s book to help deliver on the prompt above.   Some things to consider whilst reading and when writing are:                 -Who is Jared Diamond? What’s his background? His he a trained historian?                 -What is Diamond’s intention for this book? In other words, what is his thesis statement found in the introduction?                 -How is Diamond’s book set up? What do the different parts fixate on?                 -How much does Diamond/ or should Diamond have looked more at history than science?                 -In the end does Diamond accomplish for the book what he said he’s going to do in his thesis?   *(No, you are not answering these questions! These are to help you think.)   Because your analysis fixates on this one book, your paper should begin with the book’s bibliographic entry (that I have given you above) at the start of your paper. Then begin writing your paper. It’s similar to a book review because along the way you will more than likely have to cite Diamond’s book. In that case, you are allowed abbreviated footnote citations.   **For citations, consult my guidelines for the Primary Source Analysis.   Submission: Your analysis is due no later than midnight December 6, 2020 on Blackboard under the Assignments tab. Please upload a PDF or Word doc ONLY. Once uploaded SafeAssign will scan your Analysis against everything on the internet for plagiarism. Be sure to cite.