Points of View

Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies uses first person narration from the author's experiences and viewpoints. In various chapters, the author recounts personal information about himself and the people he has met and uses the words "we" and "us" throughout the book to draw the reader in.

While the overall narration is first person, because of the nonfiction, historical nature of the work, large sections of the book are written in more of a third person narrative. Obviously, Diamond was not present for all of the events that he discusses in the work and it is at these points in which the narration turns. There are also several sections in which Diamonds quotes from historical sources that are first person accounts of events. Mostly notably, Diamond uses accounts from Spanish soldiers about their conquest of Atahuallpa and the Incas.

The narration...