Wikipedia:Peer review/Guns, Germs, and Steel/archive1

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Impressive article about impressive book. I think it is close to FA criteria - what do you think? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 20:41, 5 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It could stand to be a bit longer
Fix the redirects.
Get rid of the one sentence paragraphs.
Don't use the abbreviation GGS without at some point letting the reader know what you are a abbreviating (it is indeed obvious to most people), but you should still add "or GGS for short" or something like that to one of the first couple sentences.
You need to expand more on the domestic animals section. The fact that animals can pull plows is not an example, it is one of the main reasons. You need more about other uses such as horses in battle, cows for milk, etc.
Wiki-link to animals when you are discussing them, even when it is in a bit of a tangent (I'm talking about the part about how African animals couldn't be domesticated.)

Sorry, I was only able to finish the synopsis section, I'll critque the rest tomorrow. -Greg Asche (talk) 07:37, 6 November 2005 (UTC) i think that the article is much to short and does not cover the importance of the book. Yes it's an excellent book; well worth reading if only for brain food. A good article too, although I think the actual coverage of the book itself could be expanded. :)[reply]

One aspect I don't think I see covered in this article is the importance J. Diamond placed in the orientation of the continents. He argued that food crops (and some animals) are relatively easy to transplant along the same latitude, but very difficult to move to different latitudes. Thus the eurasian continent with its long axis pointed east-west can readily exchange useful food crops along the same latitude, whereas Africa and the Americas are less favorably oriented.
There was also a television program based on the book which was broadcast on PBS. You might make mention of that toward the end.

Thanks! — RJH 17:34, 6 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

- The PBS documentary is mentioned in the lead. While this could use expantion, I don't think it is necessary in this article. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 17:39, 6 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The title of the article suggests that the subject is the book. However, the vast majority of the content of the article discusses only the ideas (and their criticisms) presented in the book. Who was the publisher? How many books were sold? During what period? How/When/Where was the book researched and written? Was it popular outside the USA? Did it have any impact beyond academia? Translation into a different medium, like a PBS documentary, requires its own section. Consider the Featured Article The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as an example of a great article on a book. Also, you may want to read this Science Magazine review of the PBS series here and this academic paper on the book's impact on the field of behavior analysis here. --maclean25 21:34, 6 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]