Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Modern · Nonfiction, History, Sociology
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
1997 · 658 pages · Nonfiction
76.2Must-Read
Score Modern
Score Modern
Critics' pick · Lifetime bestseller
≈ 16 hours to read · about 5 weeks at 30 minutes a day
Is it worth reading?
Pulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) winner (1998). On the TIME All-TIME 100 Nonfiction list.
By the numbers
76.2Must-Read Score
- Readers43 out of 100 · counts 42%
- Critics86 out of 100 · counts 34% (its stronger lane)
- Bestseller35 out of 100 · counts 14%
- Buzz0 out of 100 · counts 10%
Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero. The parts combine into the Must-Read Score, shown on a scale where the best book we found scores 99 and the last book to make the ranking scores 50.
Where it ranks
- #107 of the 198 history books we rank
- #351 of the 1,575 modern books we rank
- #692 of the 2,819 books we rank
Won
- Pulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) winner (1998)
On the lists
- TIME All-TIME 100 Nonfiction
Reads as
Thought-provoking, True story
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