A short life of the author
Jared Mason Diamond (b. 1937) was born on 10 September 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts. He studied physiology at Harvard and Cambridge, and is a professor of geography at UCLA. He has conducted extensive field research in New Guinea and is a specialist in the ecology and evolution of birds.
Life and Career
The Third Chimpanzee (1991) — about human evolution and what distinguishes humans from our primate relatives — was his first general-audience book.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997) — which argues that the dominance of Eurasian civilisations resulted not from racial or intellectual superiority but from geographic advantages (domesticable plants and animals, east-west continental axes that facilitated the spread of agriculture, and exposure to livestock-borne diseases that created immunities) — won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and has sold millions of copies. It was adapted as a National Geographic documentary.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005) — which examined why civilisations from Easter Island to the Maya to the Norse Greenland colony collapsed, and what lessons modern societies might draw — was another bestseller.
The World Until Yesterday (2012) examined traditional societies. Upheaval (2019) applied a crisis-therapy framework to national crises.
Diamond’s work has been critiqued by anthropologists and historians for geographical determinism, oversimplification, and insufficient engagement with indigenous agency. These critiques are serious and have reshaped how his work is taught.
Key Works
- Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997)
- Collapse (2005)
- The Third Chimpanzee (1991)
Collecting Diamond
Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997, W.W. Norton) brings $20–$60 for firsts. The Third Chimpanzee (1991, HarperCollins) brings $15–$40.