Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
The clearest introduction to Diamond’s large-scale account of human history and geographic inequality.
Author guide
Jared Diamond Books in Order
Jared Mason Diamond is an American scholar and author whose work spans physiology, evolutionary biology, ecology, ornithology, geography, anthropology, and history. He is professor emeritus of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is known for research on New Guinea birds and influential books explaining human societies through environmental, biological, geographic, and historical perspectives.
popular sciencehistorygeographyanthropologyevolutionary biologyecologyornithology
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
Best starting point for Diamond’s work on human evolution and human nature.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Recommended for his environmental and historical analysis of societal success and failure.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (1)
- The Third Chimpanzee for Young People: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
adapted-nonfiction · 2015
At some point during the last 100,000 years, humans began exhibiting traits and behavior that distinguished us from other animals, eventually creating language, art, religion, bicycles, spacecraft, and nuclear weapons—all within a…
Nonfiction (7)
- Birds of New Guinea
field-guide · 1986
- The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
popular-science · 1991
The Development of an Extraordinary Species We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet -- having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse…
- Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality
popular-science · 1997
How human sexuality came to be what it now is. Human sexuality seems normal to us but it is bizarre by the standards of other animals. Jarad Diamond Argues that our stange SEX lives were as crucial to our rise to human atatus as were our…
- Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
popular-science · 1997
An epic detective story that offers a gripping expose on why the world is so unequal. Professor Jared Diamond traveled the globe for over 30 years trying to answer this question. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book.
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
popular-science · 2005
"In his Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now, Diamond probes the…
- The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
popular-science · 2012
Draws on decades of field work in the Pacific islands and other world regions to illuminate the degree to which modern society reflects traditional cultures from earlier and ancient time periods.
- Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change
popular-science · 2019
Other (2)
- Avifauna of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea
scientific-monograph · 1972
- The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, & Biogeography
scientific-monograph · 2001
Frequently asked questions about Jared Diamond
Who is Jared Diamond?
Jared Mason Diamond is an American scholar and author whose work spans physiology, evolutionary biology, ecology, ornithology, geography, anthropology, and history. He is professor emeritus of geography at UCLA.
Sources: ioes.ucla.edu (opens in a new tab)socialsciences.ucla.edu (opens in a new tab)
What did Jared Diamond study, and where did he teach?
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. His early career focused on physiology before expanding into evolutionary biology and biogeography, and he spent most of his academic career at UCLA.
Sources: ioes.ucla.edu (opens in a new tab)pulitzer.org (opens in a new tab)
How did New Guinea influence Jared Diamond’s work?
Diamond first visited New Guinea in 1964 to study its birds. His fieldwork there, including a pivotal 1972 conversation with Yali, helped inspire the questions about unequal social development that shaped his later public writing.
Sources: newsroom.ucla.edu (opens in a new tab)pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (opens in a new tab)
What major awards did Jared Diamond receive?
He won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and received the U.S. National Medal of Science for scholarship in physiology, ecology, conservation biology, and history, as well as for communicating science to the public.
Sources: pulitzer.org (opens in a new tab)nsf.gov (opens in a new tab)
Why is Jared Diamond considered influential?
Diamond helped popularize interdisciplinary explanations of human history that connect geography, environment, biology, and technology. UCLA credits his work with broadening public perspectives on anthropology, ecology, geography, and evolutionary biology.
Sources: ucla.edu (opens in a new tab)nsf.gov (opens in a new tab)