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Diamond ranges far and wide in looking at primitive societies and it is hard to not feel like he is picking and choosing so he can spend fifty pages ranting on talking about issues of his choice. Bilingualism? Check. Raising kids? Check. Religion? Check. Salt and sugar in our diets? Check.
That isn't to say his rants aren't occasionally enjoyable and often enlightening, nor did I get the sense that he is purposefully pushing an agenda. The end result was a book that just as it started to get too ...more
That isn't to say his rants aren't occasionally enjoyable and often enlightening, nor did I get the sense that he is purposefully pushing an agenda. The end result was a book that just as it started to get too ...more
Research reading for me. I loved the premise, and Diamond's research is smart, but it felt a little obvious in parts, and oddly the sections I least enjoyed were the ones based on his personal experience. A broad swath, but that's the point.
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Oct 20, 2012
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