pt. 1. From Eden to Cajamarca --
ch. 1. Up to the starting line: What happened on all the continents before 11,000 B.C.? --
ch. 2. Natural experiment of history: how geography molded societies on Polynesian islands --
ch. 3. Collision at Cajamarca: why the Inca Emperor Atahuallpa did not capture King Charles I of Spain --
pt. 2. Rise and spread of food production --
ch. 4. Farmer power: the roots of guns, germs, and steel --
ch. 5. History's haves and have-nots: geographic differences in the onset of food production --
ch. 6. To farm or not to farm: causes of the spread of food production --
ch. 7. How to make an almond: the unconscious development of ancient crops --
ch. 8. Apples or Indians: why did peoples of some regions fail to domesticate plants? --
ch. 9. Zebras, unhappy marriages, and the Anna Karenina principle: why were most big wild mammal species never domesticated? --
ch. 19. Spacious skies and tilted axes: why did food production spread at different rates on different continents? --
pt. 3. From food to guns, germs, and steel --
ch. 11. Lethal gift of livestock: the evolution of germs --
ch. 12. Blueprints and borrowed letters --
ch. 13. Necessity's mother: the evolution of technology --
ch. 14. From egalitarianism to kleptocracy: The evolution of government and religion --
pt. 4. Around the world in five chapters --
ch. 15. Yali's people: the histories of Australia and New Guinea --
ch. 16. How China became Chinese: the history of East Asia --
ch. 17. Speedboat to Polynesia: the history of the Austronesian expansion --
ch. 18. Hemispheres colliding: the histories of Eurasia and the Americas compared --
ch. 19. How Africa became black: the history of Africa.
