The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn From Traditional Societies? - Hardcover

Diamond, Jared

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713998989 ISBN 13: 9780713998986

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2012

Synopsis

The World Until Yesterday is a visionary new account of humanity's past from Jared Diamond, author of the international bestsellers Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel, which has sold over 1 million copies and won the Pulitzer Prize.

In The World Until Yesterday, Diamond reveals how tribal societies offer an extraordinary window into how our ancestors lived for millions of years - until virtually yesterday, in evolutionary terms - and provide unique, often overlooked insights into human nature.

In his most personal book to date, Jared Diamond writes about his experiences over nearly five decades working and living in New Guinea, an island that is home to one thousand of the world's 7,000 languages and one of the most culturally diverse places on earth. Drawing on his own fieldwork, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians and other cultures, Diamond explores how tribal peoples approach essential human problems, from childrearing to old age to conflict resolution to health. He unearths remarkable findings - from the reasons why modern afflictions like diabetes, obesity and hypertension are largely non-existent in tribal societies, to the surprising cognitive benefits of multilingualism. As Diamond reminds us, the West achieved global dominance due to specific environmental and technological advantages, but Westerners do not necessarily have superior ideas about how to live well.

Jared Diamond is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the influential million-copy-bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, which won Britain's 1998 Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize and was one of TIME's 100 best non-fiction books of all time, and the no.1 bestseller Collapse. A professor of geography at UCLA and noted polymath, Diamond has been influential in the fields of anthropology, biology, ornithology, ecology and history.

'The master storyteller of the human race' Daily Mail

About this title

Review:

A fascinating survey of a rapidly fading world (Economist)

Jared Diamond is one of the few people who have changed the way we see human nature and our history (Independent (BOOK OF THE WEEK))

Fascinating... a clear-eyed examination of life in traditional societies (Sunday Telegraph (BOOK OF THE WEEK))

Moving, well-told and fascinating.... The wide scope of the book means that almost everyone will find something of interest (Financial Times)

In The World Until Yesterday, Diamond cements his position as the most considered, courageous and sensitive teller of the human story writing today.... Diamond offers inimitable insight into our cultural history through the study of tribal communities, and an entertaining account of the human struggle.... Essential reading for anyone interested in the genesis of modern life (Independent on Sunday)

Fascinating... thought-provoking... A broad sweep through all humanity (Daily Telegraph (FIVE STARS))

The world has been waiting for this book (Times Higher Education)

One of the most interesting and arresting writers of our age.... The vast scope of his analysis, coupled with a lifetime's worth of personal insights, makes it fiercely persuasive (The Mail on Sunday)

Diamond's latest foray into a field that he has virtually made his own will be eagerly awaited by a global army of loyal readers (Observer)

A warm and reflective study... [Diamond] is a master of at least nine academic disciplines, from anthropology to ornithology, and the subject of his books is never less than everything (Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times)

About the Author:

Jared Diamond is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the seminal million-copy-bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was named one of Time magazine's best non-fiction books of all time, Collapse, a No. 1 international bestseller, and The World Until Yesterday, among other books. 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0713998989
• ISBN 13: 9780713998986
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 540