Farmer Power

Topic 

Farmer Power

Instructions 

You have two books to pick from for this assignment

  • Gun, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

OR

  • The Substance of Civilization: Materials and Human History from the Stone Age to the Age of Silicon by Stephen Sass
  • Over the course of the block/semester, you will be asked to read two selections from that book. The selections will be a chapter or 15-20 pages and you will choose what you want to read.
  • You will summarize the selection; the summary should be one-two pages.
    • The summary should be ONLY the ideas in the text – your opinions and ideas should not be in this section.  Your ideas and opinions will be in the response section.
    • The paragraph should demonstrate all of the hallmarks of good writing:  a clear main idea that is supported by specific and concrete details from the text, writing that flows and has connections between ideas (transitions), and writing that is clear of MUGs (mechanics, usage, and grammar) errors.
  • Next, you write a response.  For the response, you should ask yourself what the ideas or facts are that made the biggest impact on you.
    • Were you surprised?
    • Did you learn something that is different from something you already knew?
    • Then, you explore your own reaction – why is the idea or face you’re presenting the one that really resonated with you?
    •  Your response should be one page or less.
    • Your response should include information from the text you read, so you will have citations in the response section, also.
  • This essay will be APA 6th ed. formatted with a cover page, in-text citations, and a references page.
    • On your references page, be sure to include which page numbers you read at the end of the entry.
  • This assignment has two submission portals built in.
    • This submission portal is to check your summary to ensure that your sentences are not too close to the original.
      • You are responsible for making any corrections where you have problems with paraphrasing and/or citation.
      • Your instructor will not give you feedback on the first draft unless you ask for it.
    • The next assignment portal is where you will submit your work for assessment/to get points.
  • You are welcome to go to the Student Support Center or Online Tutoring (SmarThinking) for help with this assignment.
Answer Preview 
Diamond presents several connections that provide an understanding of how food production created prominent advantages to enable some communities to invade other communities’ lands and control or dispossess them. The first connection was that people had discovered consumable calories, which acted as a catalyst to the production of more people. Having learned how to domesticate some animals and crops, people would use a relatively small portion of land to make huge produce and rear many animals. In this case, people had achieved a means through which small land can be used to feed large communities and, therefore, prompted the faster reproduction to increase population density. The British colonies used this advantage to produce enough manpower to invade other lands. Another connection was that crop and animal products meant that people would store food, which in turn meant staying at one place and developing an administration system to govern them.
Word Count: 600