Download or read book Guns Germs and Steel The Fates of Human Societies written by Jared Diamond and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1999-04-17 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."—Bill Gates In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.

Download or read book Guns Germs and Steel written by Jared M. Diamond and published by Random House. This book was released on 1998 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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

Download or read book Natural Experiments of History written by Jared Diamond and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Some central questions in the natural and social sciences can't be answered by controlled laboratory experiments, often considered to be the hallmark of the scientific method. This impossibility holds for any science concerned with the past. In addition, many manipulative experiments, while possible, would be considered immoral or illegal. One has to devise other methods of observing, describing, and explaining the world. In the historical disciplines, a fruitful approach has been to use natural experiments or the comparative method. This book consists of eight comparative studies drawn from history, archeology, economics, economic history, geography, and political science. The studies cover a spectrum of approaches, ranging from a non-quantitative narrative style in the early chapters to quantitative statistical analyses in the later chapters. The studies range from a simple two-way comparison of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, to comparisons of 81 Pacific islands and 233 areas of India. The societies discussed are contemporary ones, literate societies of recent centuries, and non-literate past societies. Geographically, they include the United States, Mexico, Brazil, western Europe, tropical Africa, India, Siberia, Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific islands. In an Afterword, the editors discuss how to cope with methodological problems common to these and other natural experiments of history.

Download or read book The World Until Yesterday written by Jared Diamond and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-12-31 with total page 727 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel surveys the history of human societies to answer the question: What can we learn from traditional societies that can make the world a better place for all of us? “As he did in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond continues to make us think with his mesmerizing and absorbing new book." Bookpage Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of existence, human society had none of these things. While the gulf that divides us from our primitive ancestors may seem unbridgeably wide, we can glimpse much of our former lifestyle in those largely traditional societies still or recently in existence. Societies like those of the New Guinea Highlanders remind us that it was only yesterday—in evolutionary time—when everything changed and that we moderns still possess bodies and social practices often better adapted to traditional than to modern conditions.The World Until Yesterday provides a mesmerizing firsthand picture of the human past as it had been for millions of years—a past that has mostly vanished—and considers what the differences between that past and our present mean for our lives today. This is Jared Diamond’s most personal book to date, as he draws extensively from his decades of field work in the Pacific islands, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians, Kalahari San people, and others. Diamond doesn’t romanticize traditional societies—after all, we are shocked by some of their practices—but he finds that their solutions to universal human problems such as child rearing, elder care, dispute resolution, risk, and physical fitness have much to teach us. Provocative, enlightening, and entertaining, The World Until Yesterday is an essential and fascinating read.

Download or read book Collapse written by Jared Diamond and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times

Download or read book Upheaval written by Jared Diamond and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Bill Gates Summer Reading Pick A "riveting and illuminating" (Yuval Noah Harari) new theory of how and why some nations recover from trauma and others don't, by the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of the landmark bestsellers Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse. In his international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in his third book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crises while adopting selective changes -- a coping mechanism more commonly associated with individuals recovering from personal crises. Diamond compares how six countries have survived recent upheavals -- ranging from the forced opening of Japan by U.S. Commodore Perry's fleet, to the Soviet Union's attack on Finland, to a murderous coup or countercoup in Chile and Indonesia, to the transformations of Germany and Austria after World War Two. Because Diamond has lived and spoken the language in five of these six countries, he can present gut-wrenching histories experienced firsthand. These nations coped, to varying degrees, through mechanisms such as acknowledgment of responsibility, painfully honest self-appraisal, and learning from models of other nations. Looking to the future, Diamond examines whether the United States, Japan, and the whole world are successfully coping with the grave crises they currently face. Can we learn from lessons of the past? Adding a psychological dimension to the in-depth history, geography, biology, and anthropology that mark all of Diamond's books, Upheaval reveals factors influencing how both whole nations and individual people can respond to big challenges. The result is a book epic in scope, but also his most personal book yet.

Download or read book Kardashian Dynasty written by Ian Halperin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the rise of the Kardashian and Jenner families to reality show and tabloid fame. Discusses the negative publicity that has overshadowed their recent years while scrutinizing charges of exploitation that have targeted Kris Jenner, Rob Kardashian, and Caitlyn Jenner.

Download or read book Europe and the People Without History written by Eric R. Wolf and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2010-08-22 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The intention of this work is to show that European expansion not only transformed the historical trajectory of non-European societies but also reconstituted the historical accounts of these societies before European intervention. It asserts that anthropology must pay more attention to history.' (AMAZON)

Download or read book Critical Summary of Guns Germs and Steel The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond written by Dennis Bergot and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2004-02-17 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Economy - Environment economics, grade: 1,0 (A), University of Hamburg (Centre for Sea and Climate Research), course: Seminar Contemporary Environmental Problems, language: English, abstract: The starting point of Diamond’s book “Guns, Germs, And Steel” is a question he was asked by an indigenious New Guinean friend of his called Yali. His question was: “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”1, adressing the obvious inequality in wealth and power of today’s world. With his book, Diamond tries to provide an answer for this question. According to Diamond, the immediate causes for the inequalities in the world today are to be found in the different stages of development between the continents as of around A.D. 1500. By that time, only societies of Eurasia, the landmass that constitutes Asia and Europe, and there especially the Western Europeans, possessed ocean-going ships, population-decimating germs, steel weapons, horses usable for warefare, easy spread of information by an efficient writing system and many other means that come in handy decimating, subjugating or in some cases even exterminating the originial inhabitants of other continents. Diamond calls these advantages the proximate factors of differing developments that led to the inequalities. The book’s title “Guns, Germs, And Steel” can be understood as a summary of these proximate causes. In chapter three of his book, Diamond cites as a prominent example of the inequalities the conquest by the Spaniard Francisco Pizarro and a few hundred soldiers over the Inca emperor Atahuallpa at Cajamarca/Peru in A.D. 1532. The Spanish got there and won because they possessed the above stated proximate factors. He then turns the point around and asks why, for instance, the Native Americans or Aboriginal Australians were not the ones who possessed these proximate factors and used them to conquer Europe. [...]

Download or read book The Lifeboat Strategy written by Mark Nestmann and published by eBookIt.com. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 937 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On every front, 24 hours a day, you and your wealth face threats of an intensity that would have been unimaginable only a few short years ago. A sinister marriage of law and technology has made the pervasive and continuous surveillance that George Orwell warned of a reality. Identity thieves, greedy lawyers and the government have been quick to exploit this fast-evolving global surveillance network: - Data thieves can hijack your PC with easy-to-use hacking tools that even a 10-year old can master. After stealing your log-on passwords, they can drain your bank accounts. - If someone has a grudge against you, he can learn whether you're "worth suing" with a few clicks of a mouse. Hundreds of Web sites offer asset-tracking services to find your real estate ownership records, bank account balances, and much more. - Secret government data mining programs monitor your personal and financial activities 24 hours a day for "suspicious transactions." One oversight--becoming friends on Facebook with a suspected terrorist, withdrawing too much cash, unknowingly renting property to someone with a criminal background, etc.--and you could find yourself under arrest and your assets frozen. . Fortunately, you CAN fight back. You can secure your PC to make it virtually invulnerable to hackers. You can legally create international "lifeboats" of wealth and privacy that are practically invulnerable to snooping. You can understand what the government regards as suspicious ... and avoid raising your profile unnecessarily. The Lifeboat Strategy (2011) shows you exactly what you need to do to counter today's threats to wealth and privacy. It documents today's unprecedented threats to wealth and privacy and reveals hundreds of completely legal strategies to deal with them: private investments, opportunities, and strategies inside--and outside--the United States. And, it's written in language you can understand and put to work to protect yourself and your family. Special bonus report accompanying The Lifeboat Strategy (2011): How to Find Your Own Safe Haven Offshore. In this report, you you'll learn: - The 11 countries best suited for wealth preservation - Which countries offer the most to prospective immigrants? - How to legally purchase a second passport-and why you might want to. - In the current economic crisis, which "asset havens" will survive--or not? As the U.S. dollar collapses and the world moves into fiscal chaos, planning your own "escape from America" has never been more important. And this free special bonus report shows you, step-by-step, how to proceed.

Download or read book Summary of Guns Germs and Steel written by Fastreads and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-03-28 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Don't miss this summary of Jared Diamond's epic research into why some civilizations prosper and conquer, while others wither and disappear. His exhaustive tome, "Guns, Germs, and Steel" delves deep into the differentiating factors affecting humanity around the world since the beginning of recorded history. This FastReads Summary provides full chapter synopses, key takeaways, and analysis to help you cut to the core of this dense text and truly understand what has led society as a whole to where it is today. What Will You Learn from Reading This Book? Where humanity began and how it spread throughout the world What environmental factors affected the development of different societies around the world How agriculture and early food production led to the development of complex societies How large mammal domestication led to the development of infectious diseases that gave colonists an advantage over indigenous peoples How large-scale agriculture allowed societies to support non-food-producing individuals that developed important technologies What happens when two societies with their own agendas come in contact with each other for the first time What we can learn about the current state of the world with the clarity of hindsight that this book provides Book Summary Overview In "Guns, Germs, and Steel" readers have the chance to examine the course of human history on the broadest scale. Starting with the dawn of humanity and our spread out of Africa, Jared Diamond explains how the environmental, geographical, and ecological differences that were endemic to specific parts of the world led to differences in the development of the peoples in those parts of the world. This exhaustive tome leaves no stone unturned as Diamond searches for the answers to questions that have been asked time and again throughout history. Click Buy Now with 1-Click to Own Your Copy Today! Please note: This is a summary, analysis and review of the book and not the original book.

Download or read book Yali s Question written by Frederick Errington and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2004-11-15 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Yali's Question is the story of a remarkable physical and social creation—Ramu Sugar Limited (RSL), a sugar plantation created in a remote part of Papua New Guinea. As an embodiment of imported industrial production, RSL's smoke-belching, steam-shrieking factory and vast fields of carefully tended sugar cane contrast sharply with the surrounding grassland. RSL not only dominates the landscape, but also shapes those culturally diverse thousands who left their homes to work there. To understand the creation of such a startling place, Frederick Errington and Deborah Gewertz explore the perspectives of the diverse participants that had a hand in its creation. In examining these views, they also consider those of Yali, a local Papua New Guinean political leader. Significantly, Yali features not only in the story of RSL, but also in Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize winning world history Guns, Germs, and Steel—a history probed through its contrast with RSL's. The authors' disagreement with Diamond stems, not from the generality of his focus and the specificity of theirs, but from a difference in view about how history is made—and from an insistence that those with power be held accountable for affecting history.

Download or read book Insurrections of the Mind written by Franklin Foer and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To commemorate the 100th anniversary of The New Republic, an extraordinary anthology of essays culled from the archives of the acclaimed and influential magazine Founded by Herbert Croly and Walter Lippmann in 1914 to give voice to the growing progressive movement, The New Republic has charted and shaped the state of American liberalism, publishing many of the twentieth century’s most important thinkers. Insurrections of the Mind is an intellectual biography of this great American political tradition. In seventy essays, organized chronologically by decade, a stunning collection of writers explore the pivotal issues of modern America. Weighing in on the New Deal; America’s role in war; the rise and fall of communism; religion, race, and civil rights; the economy, terrorism, technology; and the women’s movement and gay rights, the essays in this outstanding volume speak to The New Republic’s breathtaking ambition and reach. Introducing each article, editor Franklin Foer provides colorful biographical sketches and amusing anecdotes from the magazine’s history. Bold and brilliant, Insurrections of the Mind is a celebration of a cultural, political, and intellectual institution that has stood the test of time. Contributors include: Virginia Woolf, Vladimir Nabokov, George Orwell, Graham Greene, Philip Roth, Pauline Kael, Michael Lewis, Zadie Smith, William Faulkner, Ralph Ellison, James Wolcott, D. H. Lawrence, John Maynard Keynes, Langston Hughes, John Updike, and Margaret Talbot.

Download or read book The Third Chimpanzee written by Jared M. Diamond and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2006-01-03 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Development of an Extraordinary Species We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet -- having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art -- while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins? In this fascinating, provocative, passionate, funny, endlessly entertaining work, renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning author and scientist Jared Diamond explores how the extraordinary human animal, in a remarkably short time, developed the capacity to rule the world . . . and the means to irrevocably destroy it.

Download or read book Oration on the Dignity of Man written by Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 95 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An ardent treatise for the Dignity of Man, which elevates Humanism to a truly Christian level. This translation of Pico della Mirandola's famed "Oration," hitherto hidden away in anthologies, was prepared especially for Gateway Editions, making it available for the first time in a stand-alone volume. The youngest son of the Prince of Mirandola, Pico lived during the Renaissance, an era of change and philosophical ferment. The tenacity with which he clung to fundamental Christian teachings while crying out against his brilliant though half-pagan contemporaries made him exceptional in a time of exceptional men. While Pico, as Russell Kirk observes in his introduction, was an ardent spokesman for the "dignity of man," his devout nature elevated humanism to a truly Christian level, which makes his writing as pertinent today as it was in the fifteenth century.

Download or read book Study Guide Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond SuperSummary written by SuperSummary and published by . This book was released on 2019-03-21 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality study guides for challenging works of literature. This 88-page guide for "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond includes detailed chapter summaries and analysis covering 19 chapters, as well as several more in-depth sections of expert-written literary analysis. Featured content includes commentary on major characters, 25 important quotes, essay topics, and key themes like Biology versus Geography and Food Production versus Hunting and Gathering.

Download or read book Guns Germs and Steel The Fates of Human Societies 20th Anniversary Edition written by Jared Diamond and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."—Bill Gates In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion --as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war --and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California's Gold Medal.