TV recommendation: Guns, Germs and Steel

HideousLump · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:59 am

3-part National Geographic series, based on one of my favorite books, starting this week on PBS (Monday at 10 pm here in the NYC area):

http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/index.html

Based on Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, Guns, Germs and Steel traces humanity's journey over the last 13,000 years – from the dawn of farming at the end of the last Ice Age to the realities of life in the twenty-first century.

Inspired by a question put to him on the island of Papua New Guinea more than thirty years ago, Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality.

- Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet?
- Why didn't the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead?
- Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East?
- Why did farming never emerge in Australia?
- And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty?

It's, like, interesting and stuff.

mutty · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:00 am

Excellent book. Thanks for the info, Lump!

jagged · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:05 am

awesome, thanks for the heads up!

I'm actually reading this right now...this should be some cool shit...I'll definitely be watching this tomorrow night

legonads · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:23 am

I want to see this. Hopefully I'll remember to tune in.

rogneeb · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:07 pm **Posts:** 12618

sounds really cool

jagged · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:35 am

g Wrote:

I want to see this. Hopefully I'll remember to tune in.

I set an alarm on my cellphone because I'll definitely forget

rogneeb · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:07 pm **Posts:** 12618

tivo set

Cotton · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 6:12 pm **Posts:** 17155

i'm gonna be working through it tonight, but will keep my eyes peeled for a rerun. this book was great.

neuroboy · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 5:00 pm

i liked the book too but the endless volumes on millet production and so on really got boring at times...

c.

Cotton · **Joined:** Mon Oct 25, 2004 6:12 pm **Posts:** 17155

neuroboy Wrote:

i liked the book too but the endless volumes on millet production and so on really got boring at times...

yeah, that's where i'd just start speedreading. and i don't know how to speedread. nor do i know if speedreading is one word or two.

legonads · **Posted:** Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:06 pm

jagged Wrote:

g Wrote:

I want to see this. Hopefully I'll remember to tune in.

I set an alarm on my cellphone because I'll definitely forget

Actually, I probably won't miss it, since I watch History Dectectives religiously, and this comes on after that.

TV recommendation: Guns, Germs and Steel

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