Books by Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond is a Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he teaches undergraduates geography. He has won numerous awards and has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a bestselling author, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, Gun, Germs and Steel. His books have been frequently recommended on Five Books (see below):
Upheaval
by Jared Diamond
How do countries deal with crisis? In Upheaval the author, geographer and historian Jared Diamond examines how six countries he has lived in have dealt with crisis—and looks at the challenges facing his own country and current home, the United States.
Jared Diamond is one of our most recommended authors on Five Books, with two of his previous books recommended multiple times in our interviews with experts: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005) and, of course, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997).
Collapse
by Jared Diamond
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is Jared Diamond's follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel. It explores the growing importance of environmental and ecological concerns to progressive US politics.
“The book is a masterpiece in terms of integrating a vast range of material from different disciplines, material on language, archaeology, comparative bio-geography, with also lots of his own ethnographic field studies peppered in there…whether you think it is right or wrong, it’s spurred an incredible amount of research. People took it seriously and fully engaged with it. It’s driven economists to get better data to test the theory. So, for example, there’s a number of economic studies now supporting Diamond’s basic thesis. Researchers went and got the date for the earliest beginning of agriculture in different parts of the world, and then used that to predict modern economic development—GDP per capita in the year 2000. You control for a lot of factors statistically, and it is still seems to be the case that what Jared Diamond presented very qualitatively—that the earliness of agriculture really matters—does hold when you do statistical analyses.” Read more...
Interviews where books by Jared Diamond were recommended
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1
The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia
by E L Jones -
2
The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
by Kenneth Pomeranz -
3
The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress
by Joel Mokyr -
4
Guns, Germs and Steel
by Jared Diamond -
5
How the World Became Rich: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth
by Jared Rubin & Mark Koyama
The best books on The Great Divergence, recommended by Davis Kedrosky
The best books on The Great Divergence, recommended by Davis Kedrosky
After a slow start, why did northwest Europe move ahead of the rest of the world in the early modern period and establish an economic dominance whose effects are felt to this day? Davis Kedrosky, a student at Berkeley and publisher of the economic history newsletter, Great Transformations, introduces ‘the Great Divergence’ and suggests some books that get to the heart of the question.
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1
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins -
2
Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution
by Peter J. Richerson & Robert Boyd -
3
Guns, Germs and Steel
by Jared Diamond -
4
The Creation of Inequality: How Our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery, and Empire
by Joyce Marcus & Kent Flannery -
5
The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition
by Michael Tomasello
The best books on Cultural Evolution, recommended by Joseph Henrich
The best books on Cultural Evolution, recommended by Joseph Henrich
What role did culture play in human evolution? Why did human brains get so big so quickly? When and why did inequality first emerge in human society? Harvard professor and author Joe Henrich picks some of the best books for understanding ‘cultural evolution.’
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1
Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics
by Eric D. Beinhocker -
2
Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
by Richard Rumelt -
3
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
by Michael Lewis -
4
Guns, Germs and Steel
by Jared Diamond -
5
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
by David S Landes
The best books on Economics in the Real World, recommended by John Kay
The best books on Economics in the Real World, recommended by John Kay
Most people completing degrees in economics won’t have read these books, but they should, says British economist John Kay.
The best books on The Environment, recommended by Mark Lynas
The British author, journalist and environmental activist talks to us about climate change. Warns that mankind has become a global catastrophe and discusses books that reveal our impact on the planet
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1
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World — And Why Things Are Better Than You Think
by Hans Rosling -
2
GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History
by Diane Coyle -
3
Gross Domestic Problem: The Politics Behind the World's Most Powerful Number
by Lorenzo Fioramonti -
4
The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality
by Angus Deaton -
5
Collapse
by Jared Diamond
The best books on GDP, recommended by David Pilling
The best books on GDP, recommended by David Pilling
As we try to make the world a better place, how does a measure that started as a way of mobilizing for war in the 17th century help? Can it be improved on? Financial Times journalist David Pilling talks us through the best books to think about gross domestic product, or GDP.
Influences of a Progressive Blogger, recommended by Matthew Yglesias
The prominent left wing blogger tells us what books have shaped his worldview. He explains why America needs to wake up to the forces preventing change, and better understand the root causes of its political deadlock
The best books on Technology and Nature, recommended by Daniel Headrick
The historian explains how the power of technology has affected man’s relationship with the rest of nature, and tells us what determines why some civilisations succeed and others fail
The best books on The Global Food Scandal, recommended by Tristram Stuart
The campaigner and historian says that Western countries waste more food than they consume. Believe him: he survives off food scavenged exclusively from supermarket bins
