"With a new afterword about the modern world."--Cover. Includes "Reading group guide."--Page [495-496]. Includes bibliographical references (pages 442-471) and index.

Prologue. Yali's question : The regionally differing courses of history -- Part One. From Eden to Cajamarca -- Chapter 1. Up to the starting line : What happened on all the continents before 11,000 B.C.? -- Chapter 2. A natural experiment of history : How geography molded societies on Polynesian islands -- Chapter 3. Collision at Cajamarca : Why the Inca emperor Atahuallpa did not capture King Charles I of Spain -- Part Two. The rise and spread of food production -- Chapter 4. Farmer power : The roots of guns, germs, and steel -- Chapter 5. History's haves and have-nots : Geographic differences in the onset of food production -- Chapter 6. To farm or not to farm : Causes of the spread of food production -- Chapter 7. How to make an almond : The unconscious development of ancient crops -- Chapter 8. Apples or Indians : Why did peoples of some regions fail to domesticate plants? -- Chapter 9. Zebras, unhappy marriages, and the Anna Karenina principle : Why were most big wild mammal species never domesticated? -- Chapter 10. Spacious skies and tilted axes : Why did food production spread at different rates on different continents? -- Part Three. From food to guns, germs, and steel -- Chapter 11. Lethal gift of livestock : The evolution of germs -- Chapter 12. Blueprints and borrowed letters : The evolution of writing -- Chapter 13. Necessity's mother : The evolution of technology -- Chapter 14. From egalitarianism to kleptocracy : The evolution of government and religion -- Part Four. Around the world in five chapters -- Chapter 15. Yali's people : The histories of Australia and New Guinea -- Chapter 16. How China became Chinese : The history of East Asia -- Chapter 17. Speedboat to Polynesia : The history of Austronesian expansion -- Chapter 18. Hemispheres colliding : The histories of Eurasia and the Americas compared -- Chapter 19. How Africa became black : The history of Africa -- Epilogue. The future of human history as a science -- 2003 afterword : Guns, germs, and steel today. This book traces the development of primitive societies, showing why some groups advanced more rapidly than others and how this progression explains why various populations stabilize at specific phases of development while others continue to evolve.