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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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What inspired you to write this book? Was there a single
"germ" or
eureka! moment? Did you conceive of Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel
as companion volumes from the start—or did the idea for Collapse surface
only after Guns was finished?
Ever since I was in my 20s and read Thor Heyerdahl's books about Easter
Island, I became intrigued by the collapse of great societies—as are
millions of other people. That interest has stayed with me over the last
forty years, stimulated by visits to Maya ruins and Anasazi sites and by
reading about other collapsed societies. I did not conceive of Guns,
Germs, and Steel and Collapse as companion volumes from the
start, but I had already written some magazine articles about collapses in
the 1980s, and the idea for Collapse was percolating below the
surface. After finishing Guns, Germs, and Steel, as soon as I came to
think about what would be the subject of my next book, the answer became
obvious: Collapse!
Both Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse are huge bestsellers—and yet
both are fairly demanding books. Have you been surprised by their success?
How do you account for it?
Was I surprised...
Poet, essayist, and naturalist, Diane Ackerman is the author of many highly acclaimed works of nonfiction, including A Natural History of the Senses -- a book beloved by readers all over the world and the volumes Deep Play, A... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The World Until Yesterday
Try:
The Human Age
by Diane Ackerman
David Bellos is the director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication at Princeton University, where he is also a professor of French and comparative literature. He has won many awards for his ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
The World Until Yesterday
Try:
Is That a Fish in Your Ear?
by David Bellos
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