Jared Diamond, "Upheaval"

Jared Diamond discusses his book, "Upheaval", at a Politics and Prose event at George Washington University on 5/10/19.

Best known for his classic Guns, Germs, and Steel, awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1998, Jared Diamond is a professor of geography at UCLA, but he draws on myriad fields, including anthropology, economics, ecology, and evolutionary biology to propose groundbreaking arguments about human civilization. His new book looks at trauma and considers the reasons why some nations recover and others collapse. Using six case studies--the Soviet invasion of Finland, Commodore Perry’s arrival in Japan, Pinochet’s Chile, Indonesia’s evolution from colonialism to independence, post-war Germany, and Australia—Diamond’s comparative study defines “crisis,” traces the process of self-appraisal and adaptation, identifies patterns, and looks at ways both nations and individuals can develop greater resilience.

Jared Diamond, a noted polymath, is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Among his many awards are the U.S. National Medal of Science, Japan's Cosmos Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, and election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of the international best-selling books Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, Why Is Sex Fun?, The World until Yesterday, and The Third Chimpanzee, and is the presenter of TV documentary series based on three of those books.

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Produced by Tom Warren