Jared Diamond

Life and work

The story behind the role.

American scientist, historian, and author (born 1937).

Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American scientist, historian, and author. He has written hundreds of scientific and popular articles and books, most notably Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997), which received multiple awards, including the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. In 2005, Diamond was ranked ninth on a poll by Prospect and Foreign Policy of the world's top 100 public intellectuals. Originally trained in biochemistry and physiology, Diamond has published in many fields, including anthropology, ecology, geography, and evolutionary biology. In 1985, he received a MacArthur Genius Grant and in 1999, the National Medal of Science, an honor bestowed by the President of the United States and the National Science Foundation. He was a professor of geography at UCLA until his retirement in 2024. Despite widespread popularity in the pop science market, for decades his work has been harshly criticized by working researchers in the topics he publishes on. Dozens of historians, anthropologists, and geographers such as the noted environmental historian Andrew Sluyter have published extensive analysis of many basic factual and logical errors in Diamond's work, and discussing the harm they believe he has done to the public understanding of history and anthropology. In November 2003, the human geography journal Antipode published a review symposium on Guns, Germs, and Steel from five researchers, all of whom questioned Diamond's basic understanding of the topic. The review also included Diamond's reply, though he did not respond analytically to any criticisms, rather stating he "found their quality very disappointing", and directing readers instead to read positive reviews of the book.

Encyclopaedic excerpts from Jared Diamond; shortened for length and available under CC BY-SA 4.0.