--- Doug Pensinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Jan Coffey wrote:
>
> > You can't beleive everything you read, but you also can't allways trust
> the
> > "experts" when it comes to a topic like history. Especialy when so many
> of
> > them disagree.
>
> I haven't read Cahill, but I have read Guns Germs and Steel and have
> heard much praise for it from those on this list that I trust for their
> scientific expertise. What are your criticisms?
To tell you the truth I don't remember. I borrowed the book from Damon (a
different but supprisingly simmilar one to the one on this list obviously)
who urged me to read it. I made it through the first f chapter which if I
remember is nothing more than a quick review of probable timelines for humans
up to a point that has soem considerable cultural component we can decern.
But by a couple of chapters latter it was so inundated with stuff that I
dissagreed with in opinion, represented doctrin that I do not subscribe to,
or thought were completely fabricated (not by dimond of course). I remember
being struck by how he would use "truisms" or -assumption- to "explain" one
thing or another without supporting the assumption. And I kept dissagreeing
with the assumption
If I am not mistaken some of it had to do with his assumptions about Native
American culture, but maybe that was another of Damon's suggested readings.
In any event I started building a graph to represent what he was saying and
it got so deep with so many dependent nodes that I contradicted with that I
put the book down and tried to forget the experience. That was two years ago,
my effort seems to have paid off. The one thing I do remember from the long
conversation Dammon and I had on the book was that I thought Diamond should
stick to physiology, and me to Computer Science.
=====
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Jan William Coffey
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