The World Until Yesterday

[darkemeralds]

I just finished listening to The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond, he of Guns, Germs and Steel fame. It's...I'm not quite sure what it is. Four books in one, I guess. Lots of cultural anthropology about New Guinea, a diatribe about diet and exercise, a warning about not romanticizing small non-state societies, and a bit of a rant about logical vs illogical safety precautions.

I think I enjoyed it despite its multiple personality disorder. Diamond makes a fairly good case for selectively adopting the wisdom of our hunter-gatherer brethren into our WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) lives: aspects of their child-rearing methods, elder care, and (surprisingly) safety standards, and a big chunk of their diet.

The World Until Yesterday is alternately amusing, interesting, and tiresome--really a mixed bag--but overall worth a read/listen if you're into this kind of "let's look at humanity's long history and draw some conclusions for modern life" type of thing, which I am.

The audiobook is very competently and unobtrusively narrated by Jay Snyder.

Comments

[ranunculus]

I think I looked at that book in paper form and decided I couldn't cope with the author's rants and diatribes. Glad you found parts of it worthwhile and interesting!

[darkemeralds]

I've been thinking about parts of it for days now, so I can say that it captured my imagination. A lot of what Diamond is going on about was stuff I felt resistant to but which, on consideration, I could see the value of.

But I stand by my initial sense that the book is scattershot, all-over-the-map, and somewhat abusive of the bully pulpit the author earned for himself with earlier works.