Want to learn the ideas in The World Until Yesterday better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond here.

Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.

Video Summaries of The World Until Yesterday

We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on The World Until Yesterday, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Jared Diamond.

1-Page Summary of The World Until Yesterday

Overview

Humans have been hunting and gathering for thousands of years. However, about 11,000 years ago they began to grow crops in order to get food.

The agricultural revolution made food more plentiful and allowed for a population explosion. This created urbanization, which brought about central governance and other aspects of modern society.

Whenever problems arise in society, we tend to look for new technologies and ideas to solve them. However, maybe the traditional ways of living that worked for humans before the invention of farming can be better than any technology or idea. After all, our physiology and psychology evolved to suit a hunter-gatherer lifestyle; therefore it’s natural that we would do better with this kind of lifestyle.

Therefore, by examining traditional societies, we can learn valuable lessons to help us solve the problems of modern life. The following key points are an exploration of these lessons.

In addition to learning about the importance of bows and arrows in early societies, as well as their role in modern society, you’ll also find out how religion will continue to play a critical role in our future.

Big Idea #1: Small, traditional societies like hunter-gatherer bands and tribes still exist all over the world.

Though it may not seem like it, there are still people who live in a traditional way of life. They’re influenced by the modern world around them, but they still maintain their own culture and traditions. Studying these groups allows us to understand what our ancestors were like thousands of years ago.

Traditional societies can be found all over the world. They are split into two groups: hunter-gatherers and tribes. Hunter-gatherers live in small bands of less than a hundred people, whereas tribes have up to a few hundred members. Both types of societies tend to be very egalitarian and democratic.

There are three levels of societies. Chiefdoms have a clear, centralized leadership that collects and redistributes goods among the people in society. The chief’s family is at the top of society, meaning they get the best housing, food and goods.

It’s clear that there are different types of societies. The most important one to focus on is the hunter-gatherer society because it is the most different from ours, and therefore holds the best lessons for us.

Big Idea #2: Traditional societies have high mortality rates from both wars and homicide.

Archaeological evidence and data from modern hunter-gatherer groups show that this type of society tends to exist in bands comprising fewer than a hundred individuals. This is because these groups need land to survive, but there’s only so much unoccupied land available.

Restricting population growth also caused conflict between traditional societies.

For centuries, war has been a common feature of human life. It’s likely that most people who lived in hunter-gatherer societies died as a result of war.

Wars were constantly fought because even if a peace treaty was signed, people would disregard it and start a new war.

Modern states have governments that are strong enough to protect the people. They can do this because they have a system of law and order, which is different from traditional societies. Traditional societies were more violent because they had food stores that could be taken by force.

In some societies, war has been a way of life. This is because the circumstances in which those societies live are not worth fighting over.

Societies have a lot of violence. In fact, traditional societies have far more than modern state societies. This is because there’s no judicial system to punish criminals and victims or their families feel that it’s their duty to avenge the crime by killing the criminal. Clearly, one of the greatest benefits of having a state is its ability to curb violence by enforcing peace and punishing criminals.