Authors: Jared M. Diamond
ISBN-13: 9780060845506, ISBN-10: 0060845503
Format: Paperback
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Date Published: January 2006
Edition: (Non-applicable)
Jared Diamond is the author of the bestselling Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel. A professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, he has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is a MacArthur Fellow and was awarded the National Medal of Science.
The Development of an Extraordinary Species
We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins? In this fascinating, provocative, passionate, funny, endlessly entertaining work, renowned Pulitzer Prizewinning author and scientist Jared Diamond explores how the extraordinary human animal, in a remarkably short time, developed the capacity to rule the world . . . and the means to irrevocably destroy it.
Physiologist Diamond traces humankind's biological and social development from about 40,000 years ago, to the present, and into the future. For general readers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
1 | A tale of three chimps | 15 |
2 | The great leap forward | 32 |
3 | The evolution of human sexuality | 67 |
4 | The science of adultery | 85 |
5 | How we pick our mates and sex partners | 99 |
6 | Sexual selection, and the origin of human races | 110 |
7 | Why do we grow old and die? | 122 |
8 | Bridges to human language | 141 |
9 | Animal origins of art | 168 |
10 | Agriculture's mixed blessings | 180 |
11 | Why do we smoke, drink, and use dangerous drugs? | 192 |
12 | Alone in a crowded universe | 205 |
13 | The last first contacts | 223 |
14 | Accidental conquerors | 235 |
15 | Horses, Hittites, and history | 249 |
16 | In black and white | 276 |
17 | The golden age that never was | 317 |
18 | Blitzkrieg and Thanksgiving in the New World | 339 |
19 | The second cloud | 349 |
Epilogue : nothing learned, and everything forgotten? | 363 |