reface to the Paperback Edition
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: 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 the 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

Acknowledgments
Further Readings
Credits
Index