Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Paperback)

Preface to the Paperback Edition: Why Is World History Like an Onion? 9
Prologue Yali's Question The regionally differing courses of history 13

Part 1 From Eden To Cajamarca
Chapter 1 Up to the Starting Line What happened on all the continents before 11,000 B.C.? 35
Chapter 2 A Natural Experiment of History How geography molded societies on Polynesian islands 52
Chapter 3 Collision at Cajamarca Why the lnca emperor Atahuallpa did not capture King Charles I of Spain 65

Part 2 The Rise and Spread of Food Production
Chapter 4 Farmer Power The roots of guns, germs, and steel 81
Chapter 5 History's Haves and Have-Nots Geographic differences in the onset of food production 89
Chapter 6 To Farm or Not to Farm Causes of the spread of food production 100
Chapter 7 How to Make an Almond The unconscious development of ancient crops 109
Chapter 8 Apples Or Indians Why did peoples of some regions fail to domesticate plants? 126
Chapter 9 Zebras, Unhappy Marriages, and the Anna Karenina Principle Why were most big wild mammal species never domesticated? 151
Chapter 10 Spacious Skies and Tilted Axes Why did food production spread at different rates on different continents? 169

Part 3 From Food to Guns, Germs, and Steel
Chapter 11 Lethal Gift of Livestock The evolution of germs 187
Chapter 12 Blueprints and Borrowed Letters The evolution of writing 206
Chapter 13 Necessity's Mother The evolution of technology 229
Chapter 14 From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy The evolution of government and religion 254

Part 4 Around the World in Six Chapters
Chapter 15 Yali's People The histories of Australia and New Guinea 283
Chapter 16 How China Became Chinese The history of East Asia 308
Chapter 17 Speedboat to Polynesia The history of the Austronesian expansion 320
Chapter 18 Hemispheres Colliding The histories of Eurasia and the Americas compared 339
Chapter 19 How Africa Became Black The history of Africa 361
Chapter 20 Who Are the Japanese? The history of Japan 386

Epilogue The Future of Human History as a Science 409
2017 Afterword: Rich and Poor Countries in Light of Guns, Germs, and Steel 433
Acknowledgments 445
Further Readings 447
Credits 475
Index 477