Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
“An extremely ambitious attempt to explain the history of humankind. Thompson’s historical materialism provides him with a reliable compass on his journey and the end result is nothing short of inspiring.”
Review
“Willie Thompson has written an engaging and concise world history that is both analytically ambitious and lucidly argued. It's an excellent discussion of many complex questions which should be of interest to both undergraduates and the general reader.”
Review
“Willie Thompson reminds us all of the power of a master narrative written in the now all too rare tradition of all-encompassing erudition that impresses and inspires, informs and provokes. A powerful book derived from decades of historical research and reflection on the essence of what it is to be human. A must read.”
Review
“The history of civilization has enjoyed a renaissance of late. Historians grapple with civilizations’ clashes, their defense and their erosion. This book is, therefore, a welcome addition to the history of change in the global human condition and situation. By tracing and analyzing human relationships within the framework of work, sex and power, civilization’s ‘fabric of history’ unfolds to illustrate clearly the rise and fall of different forms of social, political and economic organization.”
Synopsis
**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
Synopsis
The forces that shape our history are always contentious, yet our fascination with what drives the actions of the human race is inexhaustible. In
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond proposed one set of forces; Willie Thompson, in
Work, Sex, and Power, suggests a far more radical and fundamental trio. Deploying decades of experience as a historian, Thompson re-establishes a materialist narrative of the entire span of human history, drawing on a vast range of contemporary research.
Written in a clear and compelling style, this sweeping, ambitious history is accessible to audiences who are new to Marxism. Thompson discusses and explains the foundations of social structures and themes that have recurred throughout the phases of global history in the interaction between humans and their environment. From communities of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers to the machine-civilization of recent centuries, Thompson takes us on a journey through the latest thinking in regard to long-term historical development.
About the Author
Willie Thompson was, until his retirement, professor of contemporary history at Glasgow Caledonian University. His books include The Good Old Cause: British Communism 1920-1991, What Happened to History?, and Ideologies in the Age of Extremes: Liberalism, Conservatism, Communism, Fascism 1914-91.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 Cosmos, Creatures and Consciousness
2 Cooperation, Stone, Bone and Dispersal
3 The Neolithic Transformation: Settlement, Wealth and Social Differentiation
4 Gender Differentiation, Sex and Kindred
5 Status Differentiation, Hierarchy and Hegemony
6 Exploitation and Violence
7 Ethics, Ambitions, Crime and Punishment
8 The Origins of Belief in the Supernatural and the First Salvation Religions
9 Monotheism
10 Imagined Communities: Signs and Symbols, Identities and Nations
11 A Broad View - The Rhythm of Empire
12 Human Reality in Transformation: Modern Population, Migration and Labour
13 Inhuman Powers - Capitalism, Industry and their Consequences
14 No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: Trade-Offs, Opportunity Cost and the Dynamic of Unintended Consequences
15 Social Critique
16 Socialism: its Promise and Paradox
17 Desperately Seeking Significance
Notes
Index