動盪: 國家如何化解危局、成功轉型?
Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis

A "riveting and illuminating"Bill Gates Summer Reading pick about how and why some nations recover fromtrauma and others don't (Yuval Noah Harari), by the Pulitzer Prize-winningauthor of the landmark bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel.

In his international bestsellers Guns,Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding ofwhat makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in his third book in thismonumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crises whileadopting selective changes -- a coping mechanism more commonly associated withindividuals recovering from personal crises.

Diamond compares how six countries havesurvived recent upheavals -- ranging from the forced opening of Japan by U.S.Commodore Perry's fleet, to the Soviet Union's attack on Finland, to amurderous coup or countercoup in Chile and Indonesia, to the transformations ofGermany and Austria after World War Two. Because Diamond has lived and spokenthe language in five of these six countries, he can present gut-wrenchinghistories experienced firsthand. These nations coped, to varying degrees,through mechanisms such as acknowledgment of responsibility, painfully honestself-appraisal, and learning from models of other nations. Looking to thefuture, Diamond examines whether the United States, Japan, and the whole worldare successfully coping with the grave crises they currently face. Can we learnfrom lessons of the past?

Adding a psychological dimension to thein-depth history, geography, biology, and anthropology that mark all ofDiamond's books, Upheaval reveals factors influencing how both whole nationsand individual people can respond to big challenges. The result is a book epicin scope, but also his most personal yet.