Guns, Germs, and Steel
E4036
Guns, Germs, and Steel is a widely influential book by Jared Diamond that explores how geography, environment, and the distribution of domesticable plants and animals shaped the unequal development of human societies.
All labels observed (5)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T56163 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Guns, Germs, and Steel Context triple: [Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, notableWinningWork, Guns, Germs, and Steel]
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A.
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge is a 1998 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that argues for the unification of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities into a single, coherent framework of knowledge.
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B.
The Dragons of Eden
The Dragons of Eden is a Pulitzer Prize–winning 1977 book by Carl Sagan that explores the evolution of human intelligence and the brain through a blend of science, anthropology, and speculative thought.
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C.
The City That Works
"The City That Works" is a civic motto highlighting Portland, Oregon’s reputation for effective local governance, urban planning, and livability.
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D.
Hegemony or Survival
Hegemony or Survival is a political analysis book by Noam Chomsky that critiques U.S. foreign policy and argues that American pursuit of global dominance threatens both democracy and human survival.
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E.
Mens et Manus
Mens et Manus is the Latin motto of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, expressing the union of mind and hand in the pursuit of knowledge and practical application.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Guns, Germs, and Steel Target entity description: Guns, Germs, and Steel is a widely influential book by Jared Diamond that explores how geography, environment, and the distribution of domesticable plants and animals shaped the unequal development of human societies.
-
A.
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge is a 1998 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that argues for the unification of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities into a single, coherent framework of knowledge.
-
B.
The Dragons of Eden
The Dragons of Eden is a Pulitzer Prize–winning 1977 book by Carl Sagan that explores the evolution of human intelligence and the brain through a blend of science, anthropology, and speculative thought.
-
C.
The City That Works
"The City That Works" is a civic motto highlighting Portland, Oregon’s reputation for effective local governance, urban planning, and livability.
-
D.
Hegemony or Survival
Hegemony or Survival is a political analysis book by Noam Chomsky that critiques U.S. foreign policy and argues that American pursuit of global dominance threatens both democracy and human survival.
-
E.
Mens et Manus
Mens et Manus is the Latin motto of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, expressing the union of mind and hand in the pursuit of knowledge and practical application.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
history book ⓘ non-fiction book ⓘ popular science book ⓘ |
| adaptedAs | television documentary series ⓘ |
| arguesThat |
Eurasia’s east–west axis facilitated diffusion of crops, animals, and technologies
ⓘ
availability of domesticable plants and animals shaped early food production ⓘ food surpluses enabled population growth and social complexity ⓘ guns, steel, and germs gave Eurasians military and biological advantages ⓘ proximity to domesticated animals led to deadly germs that devastated other populations ⓘ |
| author | Jared Diamond ⓘ |
| awarded |
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
ⓘ
surface form:
Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
|
| awardYear | 1998 ⓘ |
| centralThesis | geographic and environmental factors largely explain the unequal development of human societies ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| criticizedBy |
some anthropologists
ⓘ
some historians ⓘ |
| criticizedFor |
environmental determinism
ⓘ
underemphasizing culture and agency ⓘ |
| documentaryBroadcaster | PBS ⓘ |
| documentaryReleaseYear | 2005 ⓘ |
| genre |
anthropology
ⓘ
geography ⓘ history ⓘ sociology of development ⓘ |
| influenced |
popular understanding of world history
ⓘ
public debates on global inequality ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| notableChapterTopic |
conquest of the Inca Empire by the Spanish
ⓘ
origins of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent ⓘ spread of crops and livestock across Eurasia ⓘ |
| partTitle |
Around the World in Five Chapters
ⓘ
From Eden to Cajamarca ⓘ Guns, Germs, and Steel self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel
Guns, Germs, and Steel self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
The Rise and Spread of Food Production
|
| publicationYear | 1997 ⓘ |
| publisher | W. W. Norton & Company ⓘ |
| received | Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science ⓘ |
| structure | prologue and four parts ⓘ |
| subject |
Eurasian expansion
ⓘ
domestication of animals ⓘ domestication of plants ⓘ environmental determinism ⓘ epidemic diseases ⓘ food production ⓘ geographic determinism ⓘ human societies ⓘ inequality between societies ⓘ technological development ⓘ |
| subtitle |
Guns, Germs, and Steel
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
The Fates of Human Societies
|
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Guns, Germs, and Steel Description of subject: Guns, Germs, and Steel is a widely influential book by Jared Diamond that explores how geography, environment, and the distribution of domesticable plants and animals shaped the unequal development of human societies.
Referenced by (14)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
The Fates of Human Societies
this entity surface form:
The Rise and Spread of Food Production
this entity surface form:
From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel
this entity surface form:
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
subject surface form:
Jared Diamond