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Quote by Jared Diamond

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Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition

This book delves into the historical and environmental factors that contribute to the collapse of societies, examining case studies from various cultures and eras. It provides a critical analysis of the interplay between human behavior, resource management, and environmental sustainability. more

Author

Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond is a renowned American scientist known for his work in ecology, biology, and geography. His book 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' explores the geographical and environmental factors that have shaped human societies, profoundly influencing global history and human civilization. more

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“Not until the beginning of the 20th century did Europe's urban populations finally become self-sustaining: before then, constant immigration of healthy peasants from the countryside was necessary to make up for the constant deaths of city dwellers from crowd diseases.”

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“The history of interactions among disparate peoples is what shaped the modern world through conquest, epidemics and genocide. Those collisions created reverberations that have still not died down after many centuries, and that are actively continuing in some of the world's most troubled areas.”

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“One way to explain the complexity and unpredictability of historical systems, despite their ultimate determinacy, is to note that long chains of causation may separate final effects from ultimate causes lying outside the domain of that field of science.”

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“When you have seen the errors in which you live, you will understand the good that we have done you by coming to your land by order of his Majesty the King of Spain. Our Lord permitted that your pride should be brought low and that no Indian should be able to offend a Christian.”

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“Besides justifying the transfer of wealth to kleptocrats, institutionalized religion brings two other important benefits to centralized societies. First, shared ideology or religion helps solve the problem of how unrelated individuals are to live together without killing each other—by providing them with a bond not based on kinship. Second, it gives people a motive, other than genetic self-interest, for sacrificing their lives on behalf of others.”

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