Of course, this is only one perspective on history. But one of the most exciting things about reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, and the March of Folly is that they had such a clear perspective, unlike the textbook the Human Venture. Sometimes when a historian tries too hard to be objective, it is hard for the reader to make sense of a long narrative of historical facts, and it is better to read different biased perspectives and come to one's own conclusion as a student. Also, there is really no such thing as pure objectivity, as even to tell the story from the perspective of a person of the present, looking at the past carries within itself the tendency to see the conclusions of what occurred as inevitable.
A noticed this when watching "The Fog of War" as former Secretary Robert McNamara talks about how close the American nation came to war -- for example, he advised President Kennedy...
McNamara is famous for being an architect of the nation's Vietnam strategy, but in the documentary he does not seem like a man who loves war, but someone who desired peace but did not always know how to orchestrate this strategy -- although he may be rewriting his own past with the sad knowledge of what transpired. Regardless, the outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the entry of the U.S. into Vietnam, and the conquest of nations are not 'givens,' instead they depend upon a constellation of factors, many of which are beyond our control.
Works Cited
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. New York W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.
Esler, Anthony. The Human Venture. New York: Prentice Hall, 2003.
The Fog of War." Directed by Errol Morris. 2004.
