Guns, Germs, and Steel and Settling in the Arrival City

Both Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond, and Arrival City, by Doug Saunders, address expansion and growth of society. Albeit, they do so differently. Guns, Germs, and Steel focuses on the imperialism aspect. Diamond discusses the ways in which Eurasian influence has left some cultures with money and power while others are left in poverty. Saunders, instead, looks at arrival cities and their connection to core cities. He suggested that the success of these cities is integral to the nation's well-being. In both books, assimilation was the essential to migration but who the burden of assimilation laid on changed over time.

There is another significant difference between the approaches the two authors decided to take. Diamond wrote about the immigration of Eurasian people and its consequences on native people. They could either accept colonial domination or reject it. Saunders instead focused on the meshing of cultures. He discussed how integration became a focal point. Globalization is a key element of both writings. Rejecting globalization, according to both authors, will lead to social unrest and poverty. However, the time-line differs between the two books.

Guns, Germs, and Steel dates further back. Diamond references migratory hunter-gatherer societies and traces their metamorphosis into a more rooted agrarian culture. He believes there are certain conditions which must be met for these agrarian cities to develop. First of which, the people will need access to vegetation. Access in itself is not sufficient. It is imperative that the vegetation endures storage. The environment must accommodate storage as well. To fulfill that requirement, the environment must be sufficiently dry otherwise the storage will spoil. Lastly, Diamond believes domesticated animals, able to survive captivity are needed for these cities to survive.

The transition from nomadic cultures towards a more rooted city allows the peoples' focus to shift from sustenance to more specialized activities. It is for that reason that technology has been able to advance as far as it has. Cartography was one of the technologies most important to expansion and colonization (Diamond). Developing technologies is not the only benefit of surplus supplies. A surplus allows for population growth. By these means, nations are born from nomadic tribes. According to Diamond, Eurasians were amongst the first people in our human family tree to make this transition.

Saunders's Arrival City unfolds on a more current time-line. The focus lays on neither development of new cities nor colonization. Saunders brings the reader into well-established cities. He views the migration from villages and rural areas to large metropolises as the final great wave of urbanization. He views this transition as the last human movement of this magnitude. The arrival cities, for which the book is named, pop up around the metropolis on the outskirts and in various pockets of the city.

After living in these arrival cities for a time, the immigrants leave their communities. Their goal is to save, invest, and create new economies. They leave afterward, creating room for new immigrants. On occasion, these arrival cities face hostility from government and local community groups. In one such case from Saunders's book, unsightly arrival city slums have been bulldozed. Mumbai removed shantytowns which had been built in unsafe environments. The environments deemed unsafe included railways, airports, and parks. Other times the true intention came through. Destruction of these cities was indicative of the government's stance on uncontrolled migration. But this did little to hinder immigration into Mumbai (Saunders 62).

The shantytowns were rebuilt and inhabited once more. Saunders feels the government has taken the wrong approach. To him, these cities represent opportunity. He feels the goal should be to accept immigrants, granting them citizenship, property and education. Saunders believes because the occupants of shantytowns are denied these advantages they are unable to flourish. They are left doomed, with no chance of bettering their status. They are prevented from having the ability to assimilate.

This is where Saunders and Diamond diverge. Diamond writes about a time where assimilation was forced by colonization. The advantages granted by a stationary lifestyle allowed Eurasian peoples to overpower indigenous nomadic or simply less advanced societies. But the most effective weapon carried by Eurasians could not be crafted or built. Disease, germs carried overseas into foreign lands, claimed more lives than any other weapon. It is for this reason that Diamond includes Germs in the title of his book. European diseases allowed the European migrants to assert their dominance over indigenous people (Diamond 211).

Immigration throughout history has always run the risk of violence. Whether it be the migration patterns of European conquistadors bringing technology and disease to more primitive indigenous people or migrants leaving their home villages for an arrival city, turbulence is to be expected. Both authors portray migration as the blending of cultures. The primary difference between the two works is the context in which the cities blend. Migrants shift from agricultural cities and villages to urban metropolises trying to adapt to a new life or indigenous people find themselves with foreign culture forced upon them. In both scenarios, the required outcome is assimilation. According to both authors, failure for migrants and natives to blend into a homogenous society will result in poverty and social unrest.

Works Cited

Diamond, Jared M. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1998. Print.

Diamond, Jared. "The Reality Club: Why Did Human History Evolve Differently?" The Reality Club: Why Did Human History Evolve Differently? N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.

Saunders, Doug. Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History Is Reshaping Our World. New York: Pantheon, 2010. Print.