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

Product Description

Over the past 500 years, the West achieved global dominance, but do Westerners necessarily have better ideas about how to raise children, care for the elderly, or simply live well?
 
Jared Diamond reveals that traditional societies around the world offer an extraordinary window into how our ancestors lived for the majority of human history - until virtually yesterday, in evolutionary terms. Drawing on decades of his own fieldwork, he explores how tribal people approach essential human problems, from health and diet to conflict resolution and language, and discovers they have much to teach us. 
 
The World Until Yesterday is a mesmerizing sweep through all humanity that offers profound lessons for how to live today.
 
'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.' Mail on Sunday

'The world has been waiting for this book.' Times Higher Education 

'The most considered, courageous and sensitive teller of the human story writing today . . . Essential reading for anyone interested in the genesis of modern life.' Independent on Sunday
 
'One of the few people who have changed the way we see human nature and our history.' Independent 
 
'Moving, well-told and fascinating . . . A captivating account.' Financial Times

'A compelling account of the gains and losses that go with modern living.'  John Gray