Deze serie duikt in de diepten van de menselijke geschiedenis en onderzoekt de boeiende vraag waarom verschillende samenlevingen zich op uiteenlopende paden hebben ontwikkeld. Het ontrafelt het complexe web van factoren die beschavingen hebben gevormd, van geografische en ecologische invloeden tot technologische innovaties en culturele uitwisselingen. Lezers gaan op reis over continenten en eeuwen, krijgen inzicht in de dynamiek van opkomst en ondergang, en begrijpen de onderlinge verbondenheid van het menselijk lot.
This book answers the most obvious, the most important, yet the most difficult question about human history: why history unfolded so differently on different continents. Geography and biography, not race, moulded the contrasting fates of Europeans, Asians
Waarom zijn sommige beschavingen verdwenen en hoe kan de onze haar ondergang voorkomen? - Druk 1
Brilliant and immensely absorbing, this book is destined to become essential reading, addressing the urgent question of how to avoid ecological disaster. Following his million-copy bestseller, the author explores the reasons behind the collapse of great civilizations and the lessons we can learn from their downfalls. Through captivating historical narratives, he examines societies from the Polynesian cultures of Easter Island to the Anasazi and Maya civilizations, and the Viking colony in Greenland. Key factors in these collapses included environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, and poor political decisions. However, some societies managed to find solutions and endure. Today, we face similar challenges, as seen in the disasters of Rwanda and Haiti, while countries like China and Australia seek innovative responses. Despite our society's wealth and political power, troubling signs are emerging even in ecologically stable regions like Montana. This compelling examination of past civilizations serves as a crucial reminder of the need for sustainable practices to ensure our future.
In his landmark international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now in the third book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crisis. Diamond shows us how seven countries have survived defining upheavals in the recent past - from the forced opening up of Japan and the Soviet invasion of Finland to the Pinochet regime in Chile - through selective change, a process of painful self-appraisal and adaptation more commonly associated with personal trauma. Looking ahead to the future, he investigates whether the United States, and the world, are squandering their natural advantages and are on a devastating path towards catastrophe. Is this fate inevitable? Or can we still learn from the lessons of the past? Exhibiting the awe-inspiring grasp of history, geography, economics and anthropology that marks all Diamond's work, Upheaval reveals how both nations and individuals can become more resilient. The result is a book epic in scope, but also his most personal yet.