The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?

Diamond, Jared

ISBN 10: 1846147581 / ISBN 13: 9781846147586

Published by Allen Lane, 2012

About this Item

**PAPERBACK**.

Seller Inventory # mon0000331044

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1846147581
• ISBN 13: 9781846147586
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Jared Diamond is a professor of geography at UCLA. Among his many awards are the National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, Japan's Cosmos Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and the Lewis Thomas Prize honoring the Scientist as Poet, presented by The Rockefeller University. His previous books include "Why Is Sex Fun?," "The Third Chimpanzee," "Collapse," and "Guns, Germs, and Steel," winner of the Pulitzer Prize.