“...neither life nor history is an enterprise for those who seek simplicity and consistency.”

“History as well as life itself is complicated -- neither life nor history is an enterprise for those who seek simplicity and consistency.”

“Much of human history has consisted of unequal conflicts between the haves and the have-nots.”

“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.”

“For anyone inclined to caricature environmental history as 'environmental determinism,' the contrasting histories of the Dominican Republic and Haiti provide a useful antidote. Yes, environmental problems do constrain human societies, but the societies' responses also make a difference.”

“History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves”

“With the rise of chiefdoms around 7,500 years ago, people had to learn, for the first time in history, how to encounter strangers regularly without attempting to kill them.”