From 'the master storyteller of the human race' (Daily Mail), a brilliant new theory of how and why some nations recover from trauma and others don't.
In his landmark international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now in the third book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crisis.
Diamond shows us how seven countries have survived defining upheavals in the recent past - from the forced opening up of Japan and the Soviet invasion of Finland to the Pinochet regime in Chile - through selective change, a process of painful self-appraisal and adaptation more commonly associated with personal trauma. Looking ahead to the future, he investigates whether the United States, and the world, are squandering their natural advantages and are on a devastating path towards catastrophe. Is this fate inevitable? Or can we still learn from the lessons of the past?
Exhibiting the awe-inspiring grasp of history, geography, economics and anthropology that marks all Diamond's work, Upheaval reveals how both nations and individuals can become more resilient. The result is a book epic in scope, but also his most personal yet.
About the Author
Jared Diamond is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was named one of TIME’s best non-fiction books of all time, the number one international bestseller Collapse and most recently The World Until Yesterday. 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.
Industry Reviews
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. -- Bill Gates, Summer Reading Recommendations 2019
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. -- Vernon Bogdanor * The Sunday Telegraph *
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' and '21 Lessons for the 21st Century'
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. -- Andrew Marr * The Times *
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. -- Douglas Murray * The Evening Standard *
[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. -- Colin Kidd, Book of the Day * The Guardian *
Fascinating globe-hopping study * The Telegraph *
As a meditation about a world on edge, it is well worth reading * The Economist *
Persuasive . . . runs refreshingly counter to conventional wisdom * Bloomberg *
Jared Diamond does it again: another rich, original, and fascinating chapter in the human saga-with vital lessons for our difficult times. -- Steven Pinker, author of 'Enlightenment Now'
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. -- Paul Ehrlich, author of 'Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic'
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. -- Diane Ackerman, author of 'The Zookeeper's Wife'
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. -- Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of 'Heavens on Earth'
