Jared Diamond

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Jared Diamond
Diamond in 2013
Born
Jared Mason Diamond

(1937-09-10) September 10, 1937 (age 86)
Education
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPhysiology, biophysics, ornithology, environmental science, history, ecology, geography, evolutionary biology, and anthropology
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Los Angeles
ThesisConcentrating activity of the gall-bladder (1961)

Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American scientist, historian, and author best known for his popular science and history books and articles. Originally trained in biochemistry and physiology,[1] Diamond is commonly referred to as a polymath, stemming from his knowledge in many fields including anthropology, ecology, geography, and evolutionary biology.[2][3] He is a professor of geography at UCLA.[4]

In 2005, Diamond was ranked ninth on a poll by Prospect and Foreign Policy of the world's top 100 public intellectuals.[5]

Early life and education

Diamond was born on September 10, 1937, in

Ashkenazi Jewish. His father, Louis Diamond, was a physician who emigrated from Chișinău in present-day Moldova, then known as Bessarabia. His mother, Flora née Kaplan, was a teacher, linguist, and concert pianist.[6] Diamond began studying piano at age six; years later, he would propose to his wife after playing Brahms' Intermezzo in A major for her.[7]

By the age of seven he developed an interest in birdwatching.[1] This became one of his major life passions and resulted in a number of works published in ornithology.[8]

He attended the Roxbury Latin School and studied biochemical sciences at Harvard College, graduating in 1958. He later studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated from Cambridge with a Ph.D. in 1961; his thesis was on the physiology and biophysics of membranes in the gallbladder.[4][9][10]

Career

After graduation from Cambridge, Diamond returned to Harvard as a

biodiversity management course at the European Institute of Innovation for Sustainability (EIIS) in Rome.[12] He won the National Medal of Science in 1999.[13]

Diamond originally specialized in salt absorption in the

gall bladder.[9][14] He has also published scholarly works in the fields of ecology and ornithology,[15][16] but is arguably best known for authoring a number of popular science and history books combining topics from diverse fields other than those he has formally studied. Because of this academic diversity, Diamond has been described as a polymath.[17][18]

Works

Diamond has written multiple popular science and popular history articles and books, notably The Third Chimpanzee (1991); Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Prize); Collapse (2005), The World Until Yesterday (2012), and Upheaval (2019). For a list, see Jared Diamond bibliography § Books.

The Third Chimpanzee (1991)

Diamond's first popular book,

Rhône-Poulenc Prize for Science Books[19] and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.[20]

Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997)

Jared Diamond in San Francisco, 2007

His second and best known popular science book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, was published in 1997. It asks why Eurasian peoples conquered or displaced Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of vice versa. It argues that this outcome was not due to genetic advantages of Eurasian peoples themselves but instead to features of the Eurasian continent, in particular, its high diversity of wild plant and animal species suitable for domestication and its east/west major axis that favored the spread of those domesticates, people, technologies—and diseases—for long distances with little change in latitude.

The first part of the book focuses on reasons why only a few species of wild plants and animals proved suitable for domestication. The second part discusses how local food production based on those domesticates led to the development of dense and stratified human populations, writing, centralized political organization, and

Aventis Prize for Science Books[19] and the 1997 Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science.[21] A television documentary series based on the book was produced by the National Geographic Society in 2005.[22][23]

Why is Sex Fun? (1997)

In his third book, Why is Sex Fun?, also published in 1997, Diamond discusses evolutionary factors underlying features of human sexuality that are generally taken for granted but that are highly unusual among our animal relatives. Those features include a long-term pair relationship (marriage), coexistence of economically cooperating pairs within a shared communal territory, provision of parental care by fathers as well as by mothers, having sex in private rather than in public, concealed ovulation, female sexual receptivity encompassing most of the menstrual cycle (including days of infertility), female menopause, and distinctive secondary sexual characteristics.[24]

Collapse (2005)

Diamond's next book,

Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Japan, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and modern Montana
.

The book concludes by asking why some societies make disastrous decisions, how big businesses affect the environment, what our principal environmental problems are today, and what individuals can do about those problems. Like Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse was translated into dozens of languages, became an international best-seller, and was the basis of a television documentary produced by the National Geographic Society.

Royal Society Prize for Science Books.[19] When it was nominated, Diamond was the only author to have won the award twice previously,[26]
though he did not win a third time.

Fifteen archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and historians from the American Anthropological Association criticized Diamond's methods and conclusions, working together with the larger association to publish the book Questioning Collapse as a counter to Diamond's claims.[27] In response, Diamond, as an editor at the time for the journal Nature, published an official review in the journal negatively covering the book,[28] without mentioning that the book was a critique of his own work. The authors and the publisher, Cambridge University Press, called out Diamond for his conflict of interest on the subject.[29][30]

"Vengeance is Ours" controversy (2008)

In 2008, Diamond published an article in The New Yorker entitled "Vengeance Is Ours",[31] describing the role of revenge in tribal warfare in Papua New Guinea. A year later, two indigenous people mentioned in the article filed a lawsuit against Diamond and The New Yorker, claiming the article defamed them.[32][33][34] In 2013, The Observer reported that the lawsuit "was withdrawn by mutual consent after the sudden death of their lawyer."[6]

Natural Experiments of History (2010)

In 2010, Diamond co-edited (with

multidisciplinary and comparative approach to the study of history that he advocates. The book's title stems from the fact that it is not possible to study history by the preferred methods of the laboratory sciences, i.e., by controlled experiments comparing replicated human societies as if they were test tubes of bacteria. Instead, one must look at natural experiments in which human societies that are similar in many respects have been historically perturbed. The book's afterword classifies natural experiments, discusses the practical difficulties of studying them, and offers suggestions on how to address those difficulties.[35]

The World Until Yesterday (2012)

In The World Until Yesterday, published in 2012, Diamond asks what the western world can learn from traditional societies. It surveys 39 traditional small-scale societies of farmers and hunter-gatherers with respect to how they deal with universal human problems. The problems discussed include dividing space, resolving disputes, bringing up children, treatment of elders, dealing with dangers, formulating religions, learning multiple languages, and remaining healthy. The book suggests that some practices of traditional societies could be usefully adopted in the modern industrial world today, either by individuals or else by society as a whole.[citation needed]

Upheaval (2019)

In

Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change Diamond examines whether nations can find lessons during crises in a way like people do. The nations considered are Finland, Japan, Chile, Indonesia, Germany, Australia, and the U.S.[36] Diamond identifies four modern threats: nuclear weapons, climate change, limited resources, and extreme inequality.[37]

Anand Giridharadas, reviewing for The New York Times, claimed the book contained many factual inaccuracies.[38] Daniel Immerwahr, reviewing for The New Republic, reports that Diamond has "jettisoned statistical analysis" and the associated rigour, even by the standards of his earlier books, which have themselves sometimes been challenged on this basis.[39]

Personal life

Diamond is married to Marie Cohen, granddaughter of Polish politician Edward Werner. They have twin sons, born in 1987.[4]

Selected memberships

Selected honors

Eastern long-beaked echidna Zaglossus bartoni diamondi was named in honor of Jared Diamond,[52] as was the frog Austrochaperina adamantina.[53]

Selected bibliography

See also

References

  1. ^ .
  2. Booz & Company
    . Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  3. . Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Al-Khalili, Jim (December 4, 2012). "Jared Diamond". The Life Scientific; "Jared Diamond". Discovery. January 12, 2013.
  5. ^ "Prospect/FP Top 100 Public Intellectuals Results". Foreign Policy. October 15, 2005. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  6. ^ a b McKie, Robin (January 5, 2013). "Jared Diamond: what we can learn from tribal life". The Observer. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
  7. ^ Berkeley, Michael (March 3, 2013). "Jared Diamond". Private Passions.
  8. .
  9. ^ a b Diamond, Jared Mason (1961). Concentrating activity of the gall-bladder (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge.
  10. ^ a b c "The Prizewinner 1998". International Cosmos Prize. Expo '90 Foundation. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
  11. LUISS Guido Carli
    . Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  12. ^ "Manager della Biodiversità". eiis.eu. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  13. ^ "The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details". National Science Foundation. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  14. ^ "Understanding History With 'Guns, Germs, And Steel'". NPR. September 8, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  15. ISSN 0952-8369
    .
  16. .
  17. ^ "Human Stars". The Animal Attraction. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on May 7, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
  18. ISSN 0013-0613
    . Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  19. ^ a b c d e f "Prize for Science Books previous winners and shortlists". Royal Society. Archived from the original on June 11, 2008. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  20. ^ "Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winners: Science & Technology". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 4, 2002. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  21. The Phi Beta Kappa Society. Archived from the original
    on April 28, 2009. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  22. ^ Lovgren, Stefan (July 6, 2005). "'Guns, Germs and Steel': Jared Diamond on Geography as Power". Science. National Geographic. Archived from the original on March 4, 2007. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
  23. ^ "Guns Germs & Steel: The Show. Overview". PBS. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  24. .
  25. .
  26. . Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  27. ^ Flexner, James L. (December 2011). "Asia General, Book Reviews: QUESTIONING COLLAPSE: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire". Pacific Affairs. 84 (4): 740. Retrieved September 3, 2022.
  28. S2CID 41340630
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  29. ^ "Puttin' the Objective in Objectivity". Fifteen Eighty Four. Cambridge University Press. March 8, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  30. ^ Smith, Sydney (March 23, 2010). "Cambridge U Press backs authors against Jared Diamond's Nature review". iMediaEthics. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  31. ^ Diamond, Jared (April 14, 2008). "Vengeance Is Ours". The New Yorker.
  32. PMID 19443760
    .
  33. ^ Maull, Samuel (April 22, 2009). "Author Jared Diamond sued for libel". The Huffington Post. Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 22, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  34. ^ Smillie, Dirk (October 19, 2009). "Fresh Legal Jab At 'The New Yorker'". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 25, 2009. Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  35. .
  36. ^ Hughes, Ian (May 11, 2019). "Upheaval review: How countries seldom learn from their past". The Irish Times. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  37. ^ Martindale, David (May 9, 2019). "Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond to discuss new book, 'Upheaval,' in Dallas". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  38. ^ Giridharadas, Anand (May 17, 2019). "What to Do When You're a Country in Crisis". The New York Times. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  39. ^ Immerwahr, Daniel (June 11, 2019). "All Over the Map". The New Republic. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
  40. ^ "Editorial Board". Skeptic. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  41. American Academy of Arts & Sciences
    . Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  42. ^ "Jared M. Diamond". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  43. ^ "Jared Mason Diamond". American Philosophical Society (Search results). Retrieved September 29, 2023.
  44. World Wildlife Fund
    (WWF). Retrieved September 30, 2023.
  45. ^ "Tanner lecturer will present on Tuesday". SUU News. Southern Utah University. March 4, 2012. Archived from the original on September 8, 2013. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
  46. ^ "Jared Diamond, Geographer, Explorer-in-Residence". National Geographic. Archived from the original on December 24, 2011. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
  47. ^ "The 1998 Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Nonfiction". pulitzerprize.org. 1998. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
  48. ^ Schmidt, Elaine (January 30, 2000). "UCLA Physiologist Dr. Jared Diamond Wins National Medal of Science". UCLA Newsroom. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
  49. ^ Jared Diamond is awarded by the Academy of Finland, archived from the original on October 5, 2015
  50. ^ "Honorary Fellows". Trinity College. 2013. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
  51. ^ Shmulovich, Michal (January 2, 2013). "Seven scientists and an architect to be awarded Israel's prestigious Wolf Prize". The Times of Israel. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
  52. S2CID 84750399
    .
  53. .

External links