Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis - Softcover

Diamond, Jared

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316409146 ISBN 13: 9780316409148

Publisher: Little, Brown Paperbacks, 2020

Synopsis

A fascinating new theory about how and why some nations recover from trauma and others don't, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the landmark bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel.

"Riveting and illuminating." —Yuval Noah Harari​

In his international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in his third book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crises while adopting selective changes—a coping mechanism more commonly associated with individuals recovering from personal crises.

Diamond compares how six countries have survived recent upheavals—ranging from the forced opening of Japan by U.S. Commodore Perry's fleet, to the Soviet Union's attack on Finland, to a murderous coup or countercoup in Chile and Indonesia, to the transformations of Germany and Austria after World War Two. Because Diamond has lived and spoken the language in five of these six countries, he can present gut-wrenching histories experienced firsthand. These nations coped, to varying degrees, through mechanisms such as acknowledgment of responsibility, painfully honest self-appraisal, and learning from models of other nations. Looking to the future, Diamond examines whether the United States, Japan, and the whole world are successfully coping with the grave crises they currently face. Can we learn from lessons of the past?

Adding a psychological dimension to the in-depth history, geography, biology, and anthropology that mark all of Diamond's books, Upheaval reveals factors influencing how both whole nations and individual people can respond to big challenges. The result is a book epic in scope, but also his most personal yet.

A Bill Gates Summer Reading pick

About this title

About the Author

Jared Diamond, a noted polymath, is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Among his many awards are the U.S. National Medal of Science, Japan's Cosmos Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of the international best-selling books Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, Why Is Sex Fun?, The World until Yesterday, and The Third Chimpanzee, and is the presenter of TV documentary series based on three of those books.

Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316409146
• ISBN 13: 9780316409148
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512