The Human Footprint: A Global Environmental History, Second Edition, presents a multidisciplinary global history of Earth from its origins to the present day. Provides a comprehensive, global, multidisciplinary history of the planet from its earliest origins to the present era Draws on the most recent research in geology, climatology, evolutionary biology, archaeology, anthropology, history, demography and the social and physical sciences Features the latest research findings on planetary history, human evolution, the green agricultural revolution, climate change, global warming and the nature of world/human history interdependencies Offers in-depth analyses of topics relating to human evolution, agriculture, population growth, urbanization, manufacturing, consumption, industrialization, and fossil fuel dependency.

This is an introductory textbook for the study of human evolution, and covers all major topics of human origins taught under paleoanthropology, anthropology, archaeology, and evolutionary biology courses. This book differs from the existing selection of textbooks in the following ways:
• It incorporates the most recent fossil discoveries and interpretations.• It balances the discussion between descriptions of fossils and interpretations of behavior of hominins in different time periods. • It includes current findings of genomics into understanding the more recent stages of human evolution. This important subdiscipline is badly underserved by current texts.• It consistently addresses the relationship of evidence to our current hypotheses and interpretations.
The book has an engaging and lucid style suitable for those entering the field. Students will find ample case studies, illustrations and examples helpful in understanding difficult concepts. Tables, timelines, and maps in every chapter include data summaries and key points. The book highlights peripheral points and background concepts in side boxes for easy reference and lists key ideas at the end of each chapter.
This up-to-date and easy to read text is suitable for both classroom study and self-learning.

By combining an original thesis and a representative body of ethnographic data, this ambitious work seeks to describe and explain the growth in complexity of human societies. Its emphasis is on the causes, mechanisms, and patterns of cultural evolution, which the authors explain in terms of a coherent theory of political economy--defined as the mobilization and exchange of goods and services between families. The authors show that the interconnected processes of technological change and population growth are the motor of social change, resulting in three related processes--intensification, integration, and stratification--that transform human societies over time. The validity of their theory rests on evidence drawn from 19 case studies that range widely over time and space. For this new edition, the authors have thoroughly rewritten the theoretical argument for greater clarity, updated the case materials to incorporate new research, and added a new chapter that applies their theoretical perspective to the problems of change since the industrial revolution and the globalization of trade and political influence. "Reviews of the First Edition" "In a book full of perceptive observations and persuasive arguments . . . Johnson and Earle show in masterly detail how societies articulate to their environments and . . . how they evolve." --"Ethnohistory" "A major contribution. . . . The book is a marvelous synthesis of ethnographic and historical data." --"American Journal of Sociology" "A large amount of research and thought has produced sensible and illuminating specific analyses of the mechanisms of evolutionary change. Another plus is that the writing is clear and the argument is neatly conceived." --"American Anthropologist"

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize • New York Times Bestseller • Over Two Million Copies Sold
“One of the most significant projects embarked upon by any intellectual of our generation” (Gregg Easterbrook, New York Times), Guns, Germs, and Steel presents a groundbreaking, unified narrative of human history.
Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this “artful, informative, and delightful” (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, a classic of our time, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond dismantles racist theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for its broadest patterns.
The story begins 13,000 years ago, when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Around that time, the developmental paths of human societies on different continents began to diverge greatly. Early domestication of wild plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes, and other areas gave peoples of those regions a head start at a new way of life. But the localized origins of farming and herding proved to be only part of the explanation for their differing fates. The unequal rates at which food production spread from those initial centers were influenced by other features of climate and geography, including the disparate sizes, locations, and even shapes of the continents. Only societies that moved away from the hunter-gatherer stage went on to develop writing, technology, government, and organized religions as well as deadly germs and potent weapons of war. It was those societies, adventuring on sea and land, that invaded others, decimating native inhabitants through slaughter and the spread of disease.
A major landmark in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way in which the modern world, and its inequalities, came to be.
Review
"Artful, informative, and delightful.... There is nothing like a radically new angle of vision for bringing out unsuspected dimensions of a subject, and that is what Jared Diamond has done."
― William H. McNeil, New York Review of Books
"An ambitious, highly important book."
― James Shreeve, New York Times Book Review
"A book of remarkable scope, a history of the world in less than 500 pages which succeeds admirably, where so many others have failed, in analyzing some of the basic workings of culture process.... One of the most important and readable works on the human past published in recent years."
― Colin Renfrew, Nature
"The scope and the explanatory power of this book are astounding."
― The New Yorker
"No scientist brings more experience from the laboratory and field, none thinks more deeply about social issues or addresses them with greater clarity, than Jared Diamond as illustrated by Guns, Germs, and Steel. In this remarkably readable book he shows how history and biology can enrich one another to produce a deeper understanding of the human condition."
― Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University
"Serious, groundbreaking biological studies of human history only seem to come along once every generation or so. . . . Now [Guns, Germs, and Steel] must be added to their select number. . . . Diamond meshes technological mastery with historical sweep, anecdotal delight with broad conceptual vision, and command of sources with creative leaps. No finer work of its kind has been published this year, or for many past."
― Martin Sieff, Washington Times
"[Diamond] is broadly erudite, writes in a style that pleasantly expresses scientific concepts in vernacular American English, and deals almost exclusively in questions that should interest everyone concerned about how humanity has developed. . . . [He] has done us all a great favor by supplying a rock-solid alternative to the racist answer. . . . A wonderfully interesting book."
― Alfred W. Crosby, Los Angeles Times
"An epochal work. Diamond has written a summary of human history that can be accounted, for the time being, as Darwinian in its authority."
― Thomas M. Disch, The New Leader

This new edition of the first comprehensive feminist, theoretical synthesis of the archaeological work on gender reflects the extensive changes in the study of gender and archaeology over the past 8 years. New issues-such as sexuality studies, the body, children, and feminist pedagogy-enrich this edition while the author updates work on the roles of women and men in such areas as human origins, the sexual division of labor, kinship and other social structures, state development, and ideology. Nelson provides examples from gender-specific archaeological studies worldwide to examine such traditional myths as woman the gatherer, the goddess hypothesis, and the Amazon warriors, replacing them with a more nuanced, informed treatment of gender based on the latest research. She also examines the structure of the archaeology in her attempt to understand and change a discipline that has made women all but invisible both as researchers and objects of research. Honored as a Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Book, Nelson's work will continue to be the benchmark for archaeologists interested in gender as a subject of research and in the profession.

This fourth edition of this best-selling core history textbook offers a richly illustrated, single volume, narrative introduction to African history, from a hugely respected authority in the field. The market-leading range of illustrated material from prior editions is now further improved, featuring not only additional and redrawn maps and a refreshed selection of photographs, but the addition of full colour to make these even more instructive, evocative and attractive.
Already hugely popular on introductory African History courses, the book has been widely praised for its engaging and readable style, and is unrivalled in scope, both geographically and chronologically – while many competitors limit themselves to certain regions or eras, Shillington chronicles the entire continent, from prehistory right up to the present day. For this new edition, both content and layout have been thoroughly refreshed and restructured to make this wealth of material easily navigable, and even more appealing to students unfamiliar with the subject.

定住農耕社会にとって、隣接する遊牧国家は常に脅威だった。ペルシア帝国をもってしても征服できなかった部族集団スキタイ。漢帝国と対等に闘った匈奴。こうした騎馬遊牧民はいつ頃誕生し、強大な力を握ったのか。「都市」のない遊牧社会を「野蛮」とみなすのは、定住農耕社会からの決めつけにすぎない。ソ連崩壊後のユーラシア草原地帯の発掘調査で次々と発見されている考古学資料を活かし、「もうひとつの文明」の実像に迫る。
講談社創業100周年記念企画「興亡の世界史」の学術文庫版。大好評、第２期の５冊目。
人口・経済力の点では圧倒的に劣勢なはずの遊牧国家は、隣接する定住農耕社会にとっては常に大きな脅威でした。ペルシア帝国の絶頂期を現出したダレイオス一世をもってしても征服することのできなかった部族集団スキタイ。漢の皇帝たちと対等に闘う軍事力と、李陵や張騫など有能な人材を受け入れる寛容さを持ちあわせていた匈奴。モンゴル高原から黒海北方まで草原を疾駆した騎馬遊牧民にとっては「ヨーロッパ」も「アジア」もありませんでした。定住農耕地帯の文化・社会・道徳とはまったく正反対の騎馬遊牧民。その自然環境、歴史的背景を踏まえ、彼らがいつ頃誕生し、強大な権力を持つようになったのかを明らかにし、ユーラシア大陸の東西に１０００年のスケールで展開する騎馬遊牧民の歴史を描きます。
スキタイや匈奴は文字を持たず、自らの歴史を記録することはありませんでした。しかし、幸いにも東西の「歴史の父」と称される稀代のストーリーテラー、ヘロドトスと司馬遷によって、彼らの実力と暮らしぶり、習俗が書き留められています。興味深いことに両者の語るスキタイと匈奴の風俗習慣は驚くほどよく似ていることがわかります。本書では、史書に記された事柄を発掘資料とあわせて騎馬遊牧民の真の姿を浮かび上がらせていきます。
「都市」のない遊牧社会は、「文明」とは無縁の存在、むしろ対極にある「野蛮」の地と思われがちですが、それは定住農耕社会からの一方的な決めつけにすぎません。発掘された草原の覇者たちの装飾品には、豪奢な黄金の工芸品や色鮮やかなフェルト製品などがあり、その意匠から、ギリシアや西アジアの影響を受けながらも、独特な動物文様や空想上の合成獣グリフィンなど独自の美術様式を生み出していたことがわかります。
ソ連崩壊後に可能になったユーラシア草原地帯の発掘調査で、次々と蓄積されている新たな考古学資料。フィールド調査を積み重ねてきた著者ならではの視点で、「もうひとつの文明」の実像に迫ります。
原本：『興亡の世界史02　スキタイと匈奴　遊牧の文明』講談社　2007年刊