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Brad Cooley has asked me to post this to the list (as he's lost his usual access at work).
From:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/entertainment/3260343
July 11, 2005
Guns, Germs, Steel equals human history
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By JUDITH S. GILLIES
Washington Post
Jared Diamond was a biologist studying birds in New Guinea in 1972 when
a local politician asked him a simple question: Why does the white man
have so many possessions while New Guineans have so few?
The query threw him, Diamond says, and at first he thought it must have
a simple and obvious answer. But that question inspired more than 30
years of research and resulted in Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of
Human Societies, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book published in 1997.
Now, National Geographic has produced a three-part documentary, also
called Guns, Germs and Steel, based on the book.
"The conquistadors led the way. A few hundred men came to the New World
and decimated the native population. The secret of their success? Guns,
germs and steel," the narrator says at the start of the first program.
"Ever since, peoples of European origin have dominated the globe, with
the same combination of military power, lethal microbes and advanced
technology."
How did they develop these advantages? Why do some cultures succeed
while others fail? What separates the haves from the have-nots?
These are among the questions Diamond addresses in each of the
hour-long segments.
"The book really spoke to us at National Geographic," said series
producer Michael Rosenfeld. "It makes the link between geography and
history and, by implication, between geography and the future."
Bringing the book to the screen was daunting. "It is so sweeping -
covering so much history in so many places," Rosenfeld said. "The book
is really about ideas, and they are complex ideas that can be
challenging. We didn't want to oversimplify."
Diamond, who was a consultant on the series, is on camera throughout as
the host of what Rosenfeld calls an intellectual adventure.
Part 1 of the series, The Crucible of Civilization, airs at 8 p.m.
Tuesday on Channel 8 and looks at how geography influences a society's
development.
"People around the world who had access to the most productive crops
became the most productive farmers. Ultimately, it came down to
geographic luck," Diamond says on air.
He also discusses how some societies benefited from having animals that
could be domesticated.
These factors led to surpluses of food, which allowed some cultures to
develop technology that gave them an edge over others.
The second part, The Clash of Civilizations, travels to South America.
Through dramatic re-enactments, it shows how 168 Spaniards were able to
conquer the Inca civilization of thousands of people and shape human
history - all because of guns, germs and steel.
Part 3, The Haves and Have-nots, goes to Africa and shows how geography
adversely affected the European settlers who ventured into tropical
areas.
The last episode also goes beyond the scope of the book, taking Diamond
to places he hadn't been before.
"We wanted to capture the sense of discovery as he was wrestling with
these ideas in new places," Rosenfeld said.
Diamond visits a hospital where people, including many children, are
being treated for malaria, and he is overcome by emotion.
"There's a difference," he says, "between understanding something
intellectually and experiencing it firsthand."
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There is a website for the program at:
http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/
Thanks, Brad.
Keith
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