Winner of the 1998 Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize 'A book of extraordinary vision and confidence' Observer.

This book answers the most obvious, the most important, yet the most difficult question about human history: why history unfolded so differently on different continents. Geography and biography, not race, moulded the contrasting fates of Europeans, Asians, Native Americans, sub-Saharan Africans, and aboriginal Australians. An ambitious synthesis of history, biology, ecology and linguistics, Guns, Germs and Steel is one of the most important and humane works of popular science.

About The Author
Jared Diamond is Professor of Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Trained in physiology, he later took up the study of ecology and has made fundamental contributions to both disciplines. He is among the worlds leading zoologists and experts on birds. He has made many trips to the mountains of New Guinea to study their unique birds, rediscovered their long-lost bowerbird, and advises New Guinea governments on conservation. As well as writing technical articles in his many fields of interest, Jared Diamond writes regularly for popular science journals. He is married, and has twin sons.

Table Of Contents
Preface: Why is World History Like an Onion
Pologue: Yali's Question
The regionally differing course of history
Part One: 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 Inca emperor Atahullpa did not capture King Charles I of Spain

Part Two: 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: Hot 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 Three: 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 Four: Around the World in Five 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

Epilogue: The Future of Human History As A Science
Acknowledgments
Further Readings
Credits
Index

GeneralFeatures
ISBN13:	99302780
ISBN10:	9780099302780, 978-009930
Author1:	Jared Diamond
Publisher:	Vintage
Binding:	Paperback
Publishing Date:	1998
Edition:	New ed
Number of Pages:	480
Language:	English
Dimension:	7.8 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
Weight:	430 grams

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