# 20
Guns, Germs and Steel
Thursday- 10:00 a.m. Winter/Spring term (14weeks)
Coordinator: Dave Hirsch Co-Coordinator: Agnes Lin
Course Description
On November 16, 1532 Pizarro and 168 Spanish troops defeated 80,000 Inca troops in Cajamarca, Peru. The battle resulted in the conquest of the entire Inca Empire of 2,000,000 people. How could this happen? Why were Native Americans, Africans and others subjugated by Europeans? Why wasn’t it the other way around? Were subjugated peoples inferior to Europeans? Why did cultures develop differently on different continents? According to Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Guns, Germs, and Steel, the physical locations affected the ability of those societies to develop key institutions and acquire essential traits. This SD/G will explore Diamond’s controversial theories about the rise and fall of societies through the lens of geography, technology, biology and economics, i.e., guns, germs and steel.
Topics
1. Introduction: The Question: Why did Eurasians dominate?
2. Factors that influence Domestication
3. Domestication of plants
4. Domestication of animals
5. Considerations of the axis
6. Germs
7. Writing
8. Technology and factors that influence its rise
9. From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy: social organization
10. Austronesian People
11. Europe’s Conquest of the Americas
12. Africa
13. Epilogue: The Future of Human History as a Science
14. Criticism
Bibliography
Core Book
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. Norton. 1997
Others (by Chapter of Core Book)
Klein, Richard. The Human Career. University of Chicago Press. 1989
Kirch, Patrick. The Evolution of the Polynesian Chiefdoms. Cambridge University Press. 1984
Prescott, William. History of the Conquest of Peru. New York, 1847
MacNeish, Richard. The Origins of Agriculture and Settled Life. University of Oklahoma Press. 1992
Zohary, Daniel and Hopf, Maria. Domestication of Plants in the Old World. Oxford University Press. 1993
Hillman, Gordon. Foraging and Farming: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation. Unwin Hyman. 1989
Budiansky, Stephen. The Covenant of the Wild. William Morrow. 1992
Varner, John and Varner, Jeannette. Dogs of the Conquest. University of Oklahoma Press. 1983
Zinsser, Hans. Rats, Lice, and History. Little Brown. 1935
McNeill, William. Plagues and Peoples. Doubleday. 1976
Logan, Robert. The Alphabet Effect. Morrow. 1986
Pacey, Arnold. Technology in World Civilization. MIT Press. 1990
Adams, Robert. The Evolution of Urban Society. Aldine. 1966
Raymond, Robert. Man on the Rim: The Peopling of the Pacific. Angus and Robertson. 1989
Ammerman, Albert and Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe. Princeton University Press. 1984
Clark, Desmond J. and Brandt, Steven. From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa. University of California Press. 1984
Van Andel, Tjeerd and Runnels, Curtis. Beyond the Acropolis: A Rural Greek Past. Stanford University Press. 1987
Hook, Sidney. The Hero in History. Beacon Press. 1943
Pre-Meeting: Friday, December 16, 2011, 1:00 p.m |