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Jared Diamond

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Author

The Resume

    (September 10, 1937- )
    Born in Boston, Massachusetts
    Professor of Geography at UCLA
    Wrote 'The Third Chimpanzee' (1991), 'Guns, Germs and Steel' (1997), 'Collapse' (2005) and 'The World Until Yesterday' (2012)
    Won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction (1998)
    Received the National Medal of Science (1999)

Why he might be annoying:

    He has been accused of oversimplifying history by boiling it down to a question of geography.
    The organization Survival International and tribal leaders in New Guinea complained about his portrayal of their society as being in a 'state of constant war.'
    Anthropologist Wade Davis said, 'The lessons he draws from his sweeping examination of cultures are for the most part uninspired and self-evident.'
    During a Middle East trip, Mitt Romney cited 'Guns, Germs and Steel' to explain the economic differences between Israel and Palestine.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He is good at making complicated ideas understandable for a mass audience.
    He won a MacArthur Foundation 'Genius Grant.' (1985)
    He avoids 'noble savage' romanticism: 'There are many aspects of tribal life that we emphatically don't want to emulate, such as cycles of violence, frequent risk of starvation, and short lifespans resulting from infectious diseases.'
    He said about Mitt Romney's analysis, 'That is so different from what my book actually says that I have to doubt whether Mr. Romney read it.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying