Guns, germs, and steel The fates of human societies
Book - 2017
The author dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors he feels are responsible for history's broadest patterns.
Saved in:
- Subjects
- Genres
- Informational works
- Published
-
New York :
Norton
[2017]
- Language
- English
- Main Author
- Edition
- 20th Anniversary edition
- Item Description
- With a new afterword (2017).
- Physical Description
- 494 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
- Awards
- Pulitzer prize for general nonfiction.
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN
- 9780393354324
9780606412735
- Preface to the Paperback Edition: Why Is World History Like an Onion?
- Prologue Yali's Question The regionally differing courses of history
- Part 1. From Eden To Cajamarca
- Chapter 1. Up to the Starting Line What happened on all the continents before 11,000 B.C.?
- Chapter 2. A Natural Experiment of History How geography molded societies on Polynesian islands
- Chapter 3. Collision at Cajamarca Why the lnca emperor Atahuallpa did not capture King Charles I of Spain
- Part 2. The Rise and Spread of Food Production
- Chapter 4. Farmer Power The roots of guns, germs, and steel
- Chapter 5. History's Haves and Have-Nots Geographic differences in the onset of food production
- Chapter 6. To Farm or Not to Farm Causes of the spread of food production
- Chapter 7. How to Make an Almond The unconscious development of ancient crops
- Chapter 8. Apples Or Indians Why did peoples of some regions fail to domesticate plants?
- Chapter 9. Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, and the Anna Karenina Principle Why were most big wild mammal species never domesticated?
- Chapter 10. Spacious Skies and Tilted Axes Why did food production spread at different rates on different continents?
- Part 3. From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel
- Chapter 11. Lethal Gift of Livestock The evolution of germs
- Chapter 12. Blueprints and Borrowed Letters The evolution of writing
- Chapter 13. Necessity's Mother The evolution of technology
- Chapter 14. From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy The evolution of government and religion
- Part 4. Around the World in Six Chapters
- Chapter 15. Yali's People The histories of Australia and New Guinea
- Chapter 16. How China Became Chinese The history of East Asia
- Chapter 17. Speedboat to Polynesia The history of the Austronesian expansion
- Chapter 18. Hemispheres Colliding The histories of Eurasia and the Americas compared
- Chapter 19. How Africa Became Black The history of Africa
- Chapter 20. Who Are the Japanese? The history of Japan
- Epilogue The Future of Human History as a Science
- 2017 Afterword: Rich and Poor Countries in Light of Guns, Germs, and Steel
- Acknowledgments
- Further Readings
- Credits
- Index
