2008 Woodie Awards
In the hot seat with Jared Diamond
Seth Gorenstein
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: News
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Last week, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond, author of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and "Collapse," lectured the Drew community about the environmental reasons why societies collapse. The Acorn sat down with the Pulitzer Prize-winning author after his lecture to pick his brain on the role of religion in history, teaching evolution in the classroom and why sex is so fun.
Acorn: In "Guns, Germs and Steel," you attempt to avoid recounting history as "just one damn fact after another." How do you believe American students today can garner a life-long appreciation for history, and where must this catalyze-in the home, classroom or both?
Diamond: In the home, classroom and both-and in experiencing the world. And how can Americans gain an appreciation for history? One is by visiting other countries and seeing how history did different things.
For example, for me it was important living in Europe for four years, and meeting European friends who were born in the same year I was born in [1937]. [I saw] that as a result of the accident that they were born in Germany and I was born in United States…I went to school nonstop for 18 years, whereas they got bombed out of their houses. That's one way to gain an appreciation for history, to see how history treats different people.
A: What compels you to educate the general public today?
D: Oh, it's simple. It's not that I set out to educate the public. It's just that the stuff I write about is so interesting that I want to read about it and learn about it and understand it myself, and then I explain it back to the public in the same way I explain it back to myself to understand it. So I would say that I write for selfish reasons, and the book is a byproduct. A: For centuries, China was one of the most advanced civilizations in the world, but they chose an isolationist foreign outlook. Yet when Europeans caught up to China, they traversed the sea to foreign lands. Wouldn't explaining this solely through science underplay the cultural differences of Europe and China in positioning themselves in their global roles?
Acorn: In "Guns, Germs and Steel," you attempt to avoid recounting history as "just one damn fact after another." How do you believe American students today can garner a life-long appreciation for history, and where must this catalyze-in the home, classroom or both?
Diamond: In the home, classroom and both-and in experiencing the world. And how can Americans gain an appreciation for history? One is by visiting other countries and seeing how history did different things.
For example, for me it was important living in Europe for four years, and meeting European friends who were born in the same year I was born in [1937]. [I saw] that as a result of the accident that they were born in Germany and I was born in United States…I went to school nonstop for 18 years, whereas they got bombed out of their houses. That's one way to gain an appreciation for history, to see how history treats different people.
A: What compels you to educate the general public today?
D: Oh, it's simple. It's not that I set out to educate the public. It's just that the stuff I write about is so interesting that I want to read about it and learn about it and understand it myself, and then I explain it back to the public in the same way I explain it back to myself to understand it. So I would say that I write for selfish reasons, and the book is a byproduct. A: For centuries, China was one of the most advanced civilizations in the world, but they chose an isolationist foreign outlook. Yet when Europeans caught up to China, they traversed the sea to foreign lands. Wouldn't explaining this solely through science underplay the cultural differences of Europe and China in positioning themselves in their global roles?
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