Customer Reviews

Natural Experiments of History

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Jared Diamond has written brilliant books (Guns, Germs and Steel; Collapse; The Third Chimpanzee among others) that triangulate data from an array of different fields to reach conclusions about our history on this planet. His belief in that methodology for understanding our species and our history is what is at the heart of this collection of essays, which he edited along with a colleague. Indeed, the book is a defense of those methodologies.

Some of the essays are more interesting than others: notable is the one which quantitatively correlates the extent of the slave trade in various African countries with the state of their modern-day economic development (or rather, the lack thereof.)

It's a bit of a dry read -- in some essays more than in others. But if this methodology for understanding our past interests you, it's worth the read.

I am a huge fan of Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel, and also enjoyed The Third Chimpanzee. Am eagerly awaiting the follow-up to Collapse.

This book is a collection of 7 essays, most of which are quite dry and academic. Definitely not as readable as the books I mentioned above.

Diamond co-wrote the prologue (which is mostly a summary of the book's contents) and afterword. He also authored (alone) one chapter, which is a comparison of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Specifically, he examines why Haiti and the DR have turned out so differently, despite the fact that they share the same island. Much of this is discussed also in his book Collapse, but the chapter is still very interesting.

Another chapter (by Kirch) compares a few different Polynesian islands, to try and discover which variables led to different political histories. Some areas of the world discussed in other chapters are: West Africa, India, and the western US, among a couple of others. Some of these chapters are more interesting than others. None is probably as readable as Diamond's own.

This is definitely not a light read, and it is not something that most people will read cover to cover. An important book for the academic community perhaps, but not for the average reader (like me). Overall kind of boring.

Natural experiments in history is a fascinating set of essays looking at seven historical "experiments". Each chapter has a different author who presents the reader with a wealth of information of their subject of expertise. The writing styles vary, as expected, from author to author. Jared Diamond's chapter on the origin of the differences between Haiti and the Dominican republic, and on different Pacific Islands is the highlight of the book and I wondered why the entire book wasn't on these topics. The chapter on Politics and Banking was less stimulating to me. Of course, the real value of these lessons of history is their application today. We seem destined to repeat the mistakes over and over. I fully recommend this to anyone interested in reasons why societies rise and fall.

This is an interesting book on theme of comparative analysis in historical studies. There are 7 chapters describing specific comparative studies; Patrick Kirch on the evolution of Polynesian societies, James Belich on frontier societies, Stephen Haber on the development of banking systems in selected Western Hemisphere nations, Jared Diamond on Haiti vs the Dominican Republic and Pacific island societies, Nathan Nunn on the long term effects of the African slave trade, Banerjee and Iyer on the long term consequences of Indian colonial land tenure systems, and Acemoglu et al on the effects of the Napoleonic conquest of parts of Germany. Most of these chapters are summaries of previously published research. There are essentially 2 major themes. One, exemplified in the chapters by Belich and Acemoglu et al,is an effort to find common underlying structures by use of comparisons. A second, and generally more robust theme, is use of comparisons is to identify contingent features that result in marked differences in present day outcomes. In his comparison of Haiti and the Dominican Republic and what led to the marked differences in present day economic status, for example, Diamond points to differences in geography and ecology but also to marked differences in the behavior of the 2 major 20th century dictators, Duvalier and Trujillo.

The chapters vary somewhat in quality. Chapters by Kirch and Belich are really brief summaries of a large body of prior work. They are interesting but insufficiently detailed though they have excellent bibliographies. The Nunn chapter is most interesting part of this book. Nunn uses a careful accounting of the regional distribution of the African slave trade to assess the long term effects of the slave trade on African economic development. Nunn makes a very creditable argument that the slave trade not only negatively impacted African development but accounts for a large component of the economic discrepancy between Africa and the rest of the world. This is a remarkable result. A less impressive analysis is that of Acemoglu et al on the effects of the Napoleonic occupation of parts of Germany. Acemoglu et al argue that French occupation eliminated traditional legal codes and barriers to economic development, facilitating economic modernization. The analysis does show a modest effect of French occupation. A point on which they don't comment is the bigger effect of being part of Prussia, not surprising given the historic commitment of the Prussian monarchy to development and subordination of traditional institutions.

An important point made by several of the authors is the importance of interdisciplinary approaches. While some of the authors are looking for underlying common features, more than anything else, these chapters emphasize the importance of careful, systematic analysis of contingent features over long periods. Comparative analysis can certainly be very useful in identifying such features.

This book is part of a resurgence in comparative analysis in the historical and social sciences. Each chapter is a comparative study of its own, and together they provide many new insights into human societies and their changes through time. If you are interested in this topic, see my new book. It is a collection of case studies that parallel those in Diamond and Robinson, except that we use archaeological data rather than historical data: The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies.

This is a very interesting and well written book. While I don't think everyone will like it, I am interested the books that Prof. Diamond writes.