Monday, June 05, 2006
REVISITING THE GUNS PART IN " GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL"
The Jared Diamond book Guns, Germs and Steel offered a geographic-latitudinal thesis to explain " the success of the West over the Rest". Historian Philip Hoffman of Caltech considers a different, evolutionary, explanation - the military sector of preindustrial Europe was the most dynamic, productive and expanding part of the Western economy(PDF).
(Hat tip to Ralph Luker of Cliopatria for alerting me to the online papers of The Historical Society conference) ¶ 11:48 AM
The Jared Diamond book Guns, Germs and Steel offered a geographic-latitudinal thesis to explain " the success of the West over the Rest". Historian Philip Hoffman of Caltech considers a different, evolutionary, explanation - the military sector of preindustrial Europe was the most dynamic, productive and expanding part of the Western economy(PDF).
(Hat tip to Ralph Luker of Cliopatria for alerting me to the online papers of The Historical Society conference) ¶ 11:48 AM
