The third volume in
a monunental trilogy alongside Diamond's landmark global bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel (over 1 million copies sold) and
Collapse (220,000 copies across formats). The hardback solidified Diamond's reputation as a 'global star' (
The Times) of social sciences and was picked by Bill Gates as an exceptional summer read: 'I'm a big fan of everything Jared has written, and his latest is no exception'.A book with lessons about how both individuals and nations can become more resilient, this is Diamond's
most personal book yetConsidered one of the last great polymaths, Diamond speaks 12 languages, has won the Pulitzer Prize, and is
an intellectual hero to millions of readers around the worldExamines crises in Finland, Japan, Chile, Indonesia, Germany, Australia and the United States, all countries where Diamond has lived, giving us
a chance to celebrate this legendary author Jared Diamond is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the seminal million-copy-bestseller
Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was named one of Time magazine's best non-fiction books of all time,
Collapse, a No. 1 international bestseller, and
The World Until Yesterday, among other books. A professor of geography at UCLA and noted polymath, Diamond's work has been influential in the fields of anthropology, biology, ornithology, ecology and history, among others.
Fascinating... I'm a big fan of everything Jared has written, and his latest is no exception. ... I finished the book even more optimistic about our ability to solve problems than I started.
Upheaval is
bold, wide-ranging and original ... probes large and important questions. Unlike most social scientists, Diamond can write
invigorating prose that carries the reader along with its sweep ... It
deserves to be widely read and pondered.A
riveting and illuminating tour of how nations deal with crises-which might hopefully help humanity as a whole deal with our present global crisis.Jared Diamond is an
undisputed global star of comparative history... Britain could learn from this book about how other nations have dealt with turmoil... He finds
intellectually stimulating and unusual examples that provide much
food for thought.Diamond writes so well, and his frame of reference (across disciplines and languages) is so considerable, that
almost everything he describes comes across as fresh.[Diamond] wears the mantle of
a modern-day prophet . . . opens textures of historical possibility. Only the most obtuse reader of his latest book, on national resilience, could miss the signs and portents with which it is studded ... The prophet spares us chiselled commandments, but we have been warned.Fascinating globe-hopping studyAs a meditation about a world on edge, it is
well worth readingPersuasive . . . runs refreshingly counter to conventional wisdomJared Diamond does it again: another
rich, original, and fascinating chapter in the human saga-with
vital lessons for our difficult times.
Upheaval is a
brilliant, gripping, personal account of nations in crisis, informed by how people respond to crisis. It's an especially
timely read today, when nations are stressed and have much to learn about how to survive big challenges.
I urge you to read it.In
Upheaval, I find eye-opening lessons about the political and psychological forces that lead to crisis and then resilience, how individuals and nations experience trauma in similar ways, and what that suggests about our future and the world's . . .
wise and beautiful.Jared Diamond is one of the deepest thinkers and most authoritative writers of our time-arguably of all time-and
Upheaval proves his prescience in analyzing historical crises within nations at a time when national crises have erupted around the world . . .
No scientist has ever won the Nobel Prize for literature. Jared Diamond should be the first.
'A riveting and illuminating tour of how nations deal with crises - which might hopefully help humanity as a whole deal with our present global crisis' YUVAL NOAH HARARI, author of SAPIENS
** NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**
Author of the landmark international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond has transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, at a time when crises are erupting around the world, he explores what makes certain nations resilient, and reveals the factors that influence how nations and individuals can respond to enormous challenges.
In a riveting journey into the recent past, he traces how six distinctive modern nations - Finland, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Germany and Australia - have survived defining catastrophes, and identifies patterns in their recovery. Looking ahead, he investigates the risk that the United States and other countries, faced by grave threat, are set on a course towards catastrophe.
Adding a rich psychological dimension to the in-depth history, geography, biology and anthropology that underpin all of Diamond's writing, Upheaval is epic in scope, but also his most personal book yet.
'Fascinating ... I finished the book even more optimistic about our ability to solve problems than I started' BILL GATES
'Jared Diamond does it again: another rich, original and fascinating chapter in the human saga - with vital lessons for our difficult times' STEVEN PINKER
