480 p., [32] p. of plates : 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. 429-457) and index

Part 1. From Eden to Cajamarca. --1. Up to the starting line. What happened on all the continents before 11,000 B.C.? --2. A natural experiment of history. How geography molded societies on Polynesian islands. --3. Collision at Cajamarca. Why the Inca emperor Atahuallpa did not capture King Charles I of Spain. --Part 2. The rise and spread of food productiton. --4. Farmer power. The roots of guns, germs, and steel. --5. History's haves and have-nots. Geographic differences in the onset of food production. --6. To farm or not to farm. Causes of the spread of food production. --7. How to make an almond. The unconscious development of ancient crops. --8. Apples or indians. Why did peoples of some regions fail to domesticate plants? --9. Zebras, unhappy marriages, and the Anna Karenina principle. Why were most big wild mammal species never domesticated? --10. Spacious skies and tilted axes. Why did food production spread at difference rates on different continents? --Part 3. From food to guns, germs, and steel. --11. Lethal gift of livestock. The evolution of germs. --12. Blueprints and borrowed letters. The evolution of writing. --13. Necessity's mother. The evolution of technology. --14. From egalitarianism to kleptocracy. The evolution of government and region. --Part 4. Around the world in five chapters. --15. Yali's people. The histories of Australia and New Guinea. --16. How China became Chinese. The history of East Asia. -17. The speedboat to Polynesia. The history of the Austronesian expansion. --18. Hemispheres colliding. The histories of Eurasia and the Americas compared. --19. How Africa became Black. The history of Africa