Friday, January 23, 2009

What I'm Reading: Guns, Germs, and Steel

Time is generally divided into three general categories: Present, Future, and Past. Lately, everyone's focus has been on the present while hoping for the future - our now President Obama's inauguration is still fresh in our collective consciousness.

Yet, I find my own attention more directed towards the past. In many ways, his inauguration has called for much reflection, and I'm quite pleased at how this book - Guns, Germs, and Steel - has seemly dropped into my lap.

I've just finished the book's prologue and I can tell its going to be a fascinating ride, fitting in perfectly with my sociological and ever growing anthropological interests. The first reaction to the book is that I'm glad its focus will span throughout the world's societies. In school, they've mainly targeted Eurocentric curriculums, and while Europe holds so much to learn, it is but a drop in the bucket on a global scale. Not to mention that a more wide-spanning cornerstone of understand is probably going to be critical in the years ahead.

It is with that statement, I would like to write a few posts as I progress in GGS (typing its full name has gotten irritating...) detailing my thoughts on what I read. I was told just yesterday that this book is something to digest in chunks - I hope reflecting about it here would aid in that process. Also, I want to see what discussions will arise from these posts.

2 comments:

  1. Great book! I read it around a decade ago when it first came out in paperback.

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  2. When will you plan to make another post about it??!

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