Response to Comments: /Econ_Articles/Reviews/diamond_guns.html

Brad, Jim Devine just made me aware of your review of Diamond's book. Actually took a look at it over the weekend, although I did not read it in detail cover to cover. One correction on your review: Sa'udi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, and, if you want to grant it non-European status, Turkey all did not experience long-period European conquest that overthrew a previous political order. Now, in 1817, the Turks did destroy the Sa'udi capital of Diriyah to punish them for grabbing Mecca and the pilgrim tolls, which led to the Sa'udis moving down the wadi to the next town to make a capital, Riyadh, with no break in political control by the Wah'habist Sa'udi royal family. In Iran during WW II the Soviets, US, and UK forced Reza Pahlavi out and replaced him with with his son, Mohammed Pahlavi, and, of course the US and UK overthrew Mossadegh in 1954 in the infamous Project Ajax. But the Pahlavi dynasty was ruling continuously throughout. And the Soviets did install a regime for a brief period starting in 1979 in Afghanistan, but.... More substantively, I think you have overdone the praise of this book. I understand there are rumblings that a lot of it is not new. Sounds reasonable to me. There have been a number of books emphasizing the role of disease resistance that developed in Eurasia, and was even more prominently developed in Africa, compared with those in Austronesia and the Americas. This literature is large and goes way back, with Herman Zinsser's classic on Rats, Lice, Vermin, and History (if I have that title right) being probably the godfather about 40 years ago. The older view that this disease resistance reflects closeness to human origins explains why the Africans have the greatest disease resistance and the Eurasians are second, something that Diamond cannot explain. Also, wheat is not as good at supporting dense populations as is rice. Furthermore, corn/maize is not all that bad as its rapid diffusion and adaptation in the Old World shows, not to mention the glorious potato. I do think he makes some good points about the size of Eurasia, however. In short, I don't think this is quite a work of genius, and certainly not the most important one of the 90s. But, pretty interesting. Feel free to post this on your comment page, or parts of it. I was unable to do so. Have fun. Barkley Rosser Contributed by Barkley Rosser (rosserjb@jmu.edu) on April 19, 2000.

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