Most Popular Books by Jared Diamond

"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.

**WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE** ''A book of big questions, and big answers'' Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens Why has human history unfolded so differently across the globe? And what can it teach us about our current crisis? Jared Diamond puts the case that geography and biogeography, 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 a ground-breaking and humane work of popular science that can provide expert insight into our modern world. ''The most absorbing account on offer of the emergence of a world divided between have and have-nots... Never before put together so coherently, with such a combination of expertise, charm and compassion'' The Times

From the author of No.1 international bestseller Collapse, a mesmerizing portrait of the human past that offers profound lessons for how we can live today Visionary, prize-winning author Jared Diamond changed the way we think about the rise and fall of human civilizations with his previous international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse. Now he returns with another epic - and groundbreaking - journey into our rapidly receding past. In The World Until Yesterday, Diamond reveals how traditional societies around the world offer an extraordinary window onto how our ancestors lived for the majority of human history - until virtually yesterday, in evolutionary terms - and provide unique, often overlooked insights into human nature. Drawing extensively on his decades working in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, Diamond explores how tribal societies approach essential human problems, from childrearing to conflict resolution to health, and discovers we have much to learn from traditional ways of life. He unearths remarkable findings - from the reason why modern afflictions like diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer''s are virtually non-existent in tribal societies to the surprising benefits of multilingualism. Panoramic in scope and thrillingly original, The World Until Yesterday provides an enthralling first-hand picture of the human past that also suggests profound lessons for how to live well today. Jared Diamond is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the seminal million-copy-bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was named one of TIME''s best non-fiction books of all time, and Collapse, a #1 international bestseller. A professor of geography at UCLA and noted polymath, Diamond''s work has been influential in the fields of anthropology, biology, ornithology, ecology and history, among others.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize • New York Times Bestseller • Over Two Million Copies Sold “One of the most significant projects embarked upon by any intellectual of our generation” (Gregg Easterbrook, New York Times), Guns, Germs, and Steel presents a groundbreaking, unified narrative of human history. Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this “artful, informative, and delightful” (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, a classic of our time, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond dismantles racist theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for its broadest patterns. The story begins 13,000 years ago, when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Around that time, the developmental paths of human societies on different continents began to diverge greatly. Early domestication of wild plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and other areas gave peoples of those regions a head start at a new way of life. But the localized origins of farming and herding proved to be only part of the explanation for their differing fates. The unequal rates at which food production spread from those initial centers were influenced by other features of climate and geography, including the disparate sizes, locations, and even shapes of the continents. Only societies that moved away from the hunter-gatherer stage went on to develop writing, technology, government, and organized religions as well as deadly germs and potent weapons of war. It was those societies, adventuring on sea and land, that invaded others, decimating native inhabitants through slaughter and the spread of disease. A major landmark in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way in which the modern world, and its inequalities, came to be.

The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal By Jared M. Diamond

PADA 1970-an, ketika sedang berada di Papua untuk meneliti burung, Jared Diamond ditanyai oleh sahabatnya yang orang Papua: Mengapa orang kulit putih membuat banyak barang berharga, sementara orang Papua tidak? Pertanyaan itu sebenarnya adalah pertanyaan mengenai mengapa kemajuan peradaban di berbagai benua itu berbeda-beda. Guns, Germs & Steel, buku pemenang Hadiah Pulitzer 1998, adalah jawaban Jared Diamond bagi pertanyaan sahabatnya. Mengapa sebagian bangsa di dunia bisa mencapai kemajuan teknologi dan peradaban, sehingga lantas menaklukkan dan menjajah bangsa di bagian dunia lain? Apakah itu karena bangsa-bangsa itu hakikatnya lebih unggul daripada lainnya? Atau semua bangsa sama saja, dan yang membedakan adalah faktor lingkungan berupa tanah, iklim, flora-fauna, dan sejarah alam? Guns, Germs & Steel mengajak kita melihat riwayat peradaban manusia pada masa tepat sebelum masa sejarah—mulai sekitar tahun 11000 SM—yang justru penting karena pada waktu itulah unsur-unsur pembentuk peradaban manusia seperti pertanian dan bahasa muncul. Dari situ kita diajak meninjau perkembangan di semua benua, dan mengetahui mengapa kemajuan peradaban manusia di berbagai tempat itu berbeda-beda.

At some point during the last 100,000 years, humans began exhibiting traits and behavior that distinguished us from other animals, eventually creating language, art, religion, bicycles, spacecraft, and nuclear weapons—all within a heartbeat of evolutionary time. Now, faced with the threat of nuclear weapons and the effects of climate change, it seems our innate tendencies for violence and invention have led us to a crucial fork in our road. Where did these traits come from? Are they part of our species immutable destiny? Or is there hope for our species’ future if we change? With fascinating facts and his unparalleled readability, Diamond intended his book to improve the world that today’s young people will inherit. Triangle Square’s The Third Chimpanzee for Young People is a book for future generation and the future they’ll help build.

"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."—Bill Gates Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. This edition includes a new chapter on Japan and all-new illustrations drawn from the television series. Until around 11,000 BC, all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren''t native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences. He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, Guns, Germs and Steel encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers.

"The best baseball book I’ve read in years." — Sam Walker • "An exhilarating story of innovation." — Ben Reiter • "Swing Kings feels like a spiritual successor to Moneyball." — Baseball Prospectus From the Wall Street Journal’s national baseball writer, the captivating story of the home run boom, following a group of players who rose from obscurity to stardom and the rogue swing coaches who helped them usher the game into a new age. We are in a historic era for the home run. The 2019 season saw the most homers ever, obliterating a record set just two years before. It is a shift that has transformed the way the game is played, contributing to more strikeouts, longer games, and what feels like the logical conclusion of the analytics era. In Swing Kings, Wall Street Journal national baseball writer Jared Diamond reveals that the secret behind this unprecedented shift isn’t steroids or the stitching of the baseballs, it’s the most elemental explanation of all: the swing. In this lively narrative romp, he tracks a group of baseball’s biggest stars—including Aaron Judge, J.D. Martinez, and Justin Turner—who remade their swings under the tutelage of a band of renegade coaches, and remade the game in the process. These coaches, many of them baseball washouts who have reinvented themselves as swing gurus, for years were one of the game’s best-kept secrets. Among their ranks are a swimming pool contractor, the owner of a billiards hall, and an ex-hippie whose swing insights draw from surfing and the technique of Japanese samurai. Now, as Diamond artfully charts, this motley cast has moved from the baseball margins to its center of power. They are changing the way hitting is taught to players of all ages, and major league clubs are scrambling for their services, hiring them in record numbers as coaches and consultants. And Diamond himself, whose baseball career ended in high school, enlists the tutelage of each swing coach he profiles, with an aim toward starring in the annual Boston-New York media game at Yankee Stadium. Swing Kings is both a rollicking history of baseball’s recent past and a deeply reported, character-driven account of a battle between opponents as old as time: old and new, change and stasis, the establishment and those who break from it. Jared Diamond has written a masterful chronicle of America’s pastime at the crossroads.

Hace trece mil anos la evolucion de las distintas sociedades humanas comenzo a tomar rumbos diferentes. La domesticacion de los animales y el cultivo de plantas silvestres en China, Mesoamerica y otras zonas geograficas otorgaron una ventaja inicial a los habitantes de esas regiones. Sin embargo, los origenes localizados de la agricultura y la ganaderia son solo parte de la explicacion de los diferentes destinos de los pueblos. Las sociedades que superaron esta fase de cazadores-recolectores se encontraron con mas posibilidades para desarrollar la escritura, la tecnologia o las estructuras politicas; ademas de sobrevivir a germenes nocivos y crear poderosas armas belicas. En este libro, el profesor Jared Diamond demuestra que la diversidad cultural hunde sus raices en las diferencias geograficas, ecologicas y territoriales ligadas a cada caso concreto, y analiza como evoluciono la humanidad y por que unos pueblos avanzaron hacia la civilizacion mientras que otros se quedaron estancados. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION "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.

En esta obra fascinante, provocadora, apasionada y divertida, Jared Diamond, divulgador y científico de primera línea mundial, investiga cómo el ser humano ha llegado hasta donde lo ha hecho y qué implicaciones tiene para el futuro. El ser humano comparte el 98 por ciento de su código genético con el chimpancé. Sin embargo, los humanos son la especie dominante en el planeta, han fundado civilizaciones y religiones, han desarrollado maneras de comunicarse complejas y diversas, han descubierto la ciencia, han construido ciudades y han creado asombrosas obras de arte; mientras que los chimpancés siguen siendo animales preocupados principalmente por las necesidades básicas de la supervivencia. ¿Qué tiene ese dos por ciento de diferencia genética que ha supuesto semejante divergencia entre especies tan emparentadas evolutivamente? Escrita con su característico estilo multidisciplinar, la obra de Diamond, premio Pulitzer por Armas, gérmenes y acero, reúne conocimientos de biología molecular, genética, paleontología, antropología y etología. Con todo ello construye un maravilloso retrato de lo que nos hace humanos, y del extraordinario significado que eso encierra. Reseña: «Está escrito con gran ingenio y es un placer leerlo.» New York Times Book Review

«جهد كبير يستند إلى فهم عميق، مكتوب بوضوح وحماسة، إنه أيضاً الكتاب الأبرز لهذه السنة، يكافئ منهاجاً دراسياً سنوياً من قبل أستاذ متخصص ولامع، وكل ذلك مقابل ثمن كتاب». بزنس ويك Business Week من لم يندهش عندما شاهد المعابد المهجورة في أنغكور وات أو مدن المايا التي تلفها الأدغال، ويتساءل: «هل يمكن أن نلقى المصير نفسه؟». في هذا الكتاب المثير للاهتمام، يتحرّى جارد دياموند ـــ الذي أحدث كتابه (أسلحة وجراثيم وفولاذ) ثورة في فهمنا للتاريخ ـــ كيف أن استعمال البشر واستغلالهم للبيئة يكشف حقيقة الانهيارات الكبيرة في العالم، من الأناسازي في أمريكا الشمالية، إلى الفايكنغ في غرينلاند، إلى مونتانا المعاصرة. ما ينبثق هو شكل أساسي من الكارثة البيئية التي تحيط بنا إشاراتها التحذيرية اليوم ونحن نتجاهلها برغم تعرضنا للخطر. بمزجه لحقائق علمية معاصرة ووجهة نظر تاريخية في سرد يستحيل أن يضعه المرء جانباً، يكشف الانهيار أسرار الماضي الدفينة حتى عندما يكون هناك أمل بالمستقبل. «ربما تكون موهبة دياموند الأبرز هي قدرته على الكتابة بشأن الأنظمة الجيو-سياسية والبيئية بطرق لا تعلّم وتثير فحسب، وإنما تسلي أيضاً». سياتل تايمز Seattle Times «مقنع للغاية ... مليء بالقصص المذهلة، مجموعة نفيسة من الحكايات التاريخية النادرة «و» الإحصائيات المثيرة». بوسطن غلوب Boston Globe «لا بد من قراءته ... «يظهر» الانهيار أن المجتمعات المرنة رشيقة، تستطيع التخطيط على المدى البعيد والتخلي عن قيم ومعتقدات جوهرية مغروسة عميقاً فيها، لكنها تؤدي إلى تدميرها في نهاية المطاف». نيشتر Nature «هناك رسائل أمل في الانهيار. بمساعدة من دياموند ربما يمكننا أن نتعلم رؤية مشكلاتنا بوضوح أكبر قبل أن نقطع آخر شجرة نخيل». تايم Time «شامل ورائع ... وصف دياموند التاريخ المعقد لكيفية تعامل المجتمعات مع بيئتها بنجاح أو تحولها إلى ضحية لها ... استغرق وقتاً طويلاً من الأبحاث، وبلغة عادية، يقود القارئ بكل عناء إلى منطقة غالباً ما ترفض وسائل الإعلام والصحفيون الوصول إليها». واشنطن بوست Washington Post

¿Por qué los humanos son una de las pocas especies que realiza sus prácticas sexuales en privado? ¿Y por qué practican el sexo cualquier día del mes y del año? ¿Por qué las hembras del ser humano son los únicos mamíferos que experimentan la menopausia? ¿Por qué el pene del hombre es tan innecesariamente grande? Estas y otras importantes preguntas encuentran su respuesta en la mirada que Jared Diamond lanza a la vida sexual del ser humano, única entre todas las especies animales. Profesor de fisiología, ornitología y geografía, y galardonado con el Premio Pulitzer, Diamond posee una formación y una capacidad divulgativa excepcionales para entrar en estas cuestiones. La sexualidad humana ha sido objeto de estudio desde hace apenas unas décadas, y no se presta a experimentos de laboratorio. Sin embargo, Diamond consigue aplicar sus conocimientos científicos y su sentido del humor a las fascinantes fuerzas evolutivas que configuraron nuestra peculiaridad sexual, y muestra cuánto contribuyeron a esa condición única que supone ser humano. Reseña: «Leer a Jared Diamond nos alerta sobre cómo es posible desaparecer o seguir divirtiéndonos.» Juan Malpartida, Letras Libres

Edição comemorativa dos vinte anos de publicação. Armas, germes e aço procura demonstrar, por meio de uma intrigante revisão da evolução dos povos, que o destino dos europeus, nativos americanos, africanos, asiáticos e australianos foi moldado por fatores geográficos e ambientais, e não por questões étnicas ou particularidades referentes à inteligência e às aptidões de cada grupo. Através de uma viagem de 13 mil anos de história dos continentes, Jared Diamond conclui que a dominação de uma população sobre outra tem fundamentos militares (armas), tecnológicos (aço) ou nas doenças (germes), que dizimaram sociedades, asseguraram conquistas, proporcionaram a expansão dos domínios de determinados povos e, consequentemente, conferiu-lhes grande poder político e econômico.

Ondergang van Jared Diamond, auteur van de internationale bestseller Zwaarden, paarden & ziektekiemen ''De nuchtere toon waarop Jared Diamond uitlegt dat we wereldwijd toch echt bezig zijn met "collapse" is verfrissend.'' Trouw ''Voor de monumentale ruïnes die beschavingen uit het verleden hebben achtergelaten, hebben velen van ons een romantische fascinatie. We voelen ons aangetrokken tot hun vaak spectaculaire en mysterieuze schoonheid. Hoe konden culturen die ooit zo machtig waren uiteindelijk ten onder gaan? Wat was het lot van de mensen uit die tijd? Hierbij gaat onvermijdelijk de gedachte knagen: zullen toeristen op een dag ook verwonderd staan te kijken naar de roestige casco''s van de New Yorkse wolkenkrabbers, zoals wij tegenwoordig de overwoekerde ruïnes van de Maya-steden bewonderen?'' In Ondergang ontwikkelt Jared Diamond een alomvattende theorie over het verdwijnen van beschavingen. Aan de hand van boeiende historische beschrijvingen van voorbije culturen, zoals die van de Polynesiërs, Maya''s en Vikingen, analyseert hij de oorzaken van hun ineenstorting. Aantasting van het milieu, klimaatverandering, snelle bevolkingsgroei en verkeerde politieke beslissingen vormden in alle culturen de belangrijkste factoren voor de ondergang. Sommige beschavingen vonden een oplossing en wisten zich te handhaven. De problemen waarmee de oude culturen te maken kregen zijn dezelfde als die waarmee wij tegenwoordig worden geconfronteerd. Ondergang, dat ongetwijfeld tot de belangrijkste werken van deze tijd zal gaan behoren, stelt de dwingende vraag: hoe kan onze wereld een ecologische zelfmoord voorkomen? Jared Diamond is bioloog en hoogleraar geografie aan de University of California in Los Angeles. Hij verricht onderzoek op het gebied van de evolutionaire biologie. Voor zijn Guns, germs, and steel (Zwaarden, paarden & ziektekiemen) ontving hij in 1998 de Pulitzer Prize. Van dit boek zijn over de hele wereld meer dan een miljoen exemplaren verkocht. De pers over Ondergang: ''Wat zou het betekenen voor de literatuur als andere auteurs net zo veel zouden weten, net zo helder konden formuleren en net zo zorgvuldig wisten te argumenteren?'' The New York Times ''Hij verstaat de kunst om uit grote hoeveelheden zeer verscheiden materiaal nieuwe, eigenzinnige en vaak ook verhelderende inzichten te smeden.'' NRC ''Dit boek heeft kenmerken van zijn overige werk: meeslepend, toegankelijk en direct.'' The Sunday Times

Dunia modern yang kita alami sekarang baru berlangsung sebentar dalam sejarah manusia. Sebelumnya, selama jutaan tahun, manusia hidup dalam " dunia kemarin" yang kini masih tersisa di masyarakat-masyarakat tradisional. Setelah membahas bangkitnya peradaban dalam Guns, Germs & Steel, lalu runtuhnya peradaban dalam Collapse, Jared Diamond mengajak kita menjelajahi kehidupan masyarakat masa lalu dan tradisional guna mencari pelajaran untuk masa depan. Contoh-contoh yang ditampilkan antara lain masyarakat ! Kung Afrika, India Amerika, Aborigin Australia, serta berbagai suku Papua yang diakrabi Jared Diamond dalam penelitian lapangannya selama puluhan tahun di sana.