This paper compares Ronald Wright's "A Short History of Progress" and Jared Diamond "Guns, Germs and Steel".
Written in 2008; 984 words; 6 sources; MLA; $ 34.95
Paper Summary:
The paper compares how Ronald Wright in "A Short History of Progress" and Jared Diamond in "Guns, Germs and Steel" approach the issue of human civilization and its interaction with the environment. The paper argues that while both authors place a heavy emphasis upon environmental factors in determining the history of human civilization, Diamond's consideration of cultural factors in addition to purely environmental factors renders his analysis the more valid of the two.
From the Paper:
"Both Wright and Diamond, in their respective texts, attempt to address the question of why the history of human civilization has unfolded in the manner that it has, and what has been the role of the environment in this process. Wright's perspective on this question is to challenge the emphasis many scholars place on technology in explaining why some human societies succeeded in dominating others. He argues that we "should be wary of technological determinism" (Wright 47) and that human civilization "differing in detail but alike in essentials, had evolved independently on both sides of the earth" (Wright 51). There is an old saying that the "devil is in the details" and this certainly applies to Wright's argument here for it was precisely these differences in "details" that explain why European states were able to conquer their non-European counterparts in a remarkably short span of time."
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