Linkblogging

[telophase]

A talk by Jared Diamond on the natural history of becoming rich, which is mostly concerned with social organization in terms of productivity: why did China, which was the technological leader of the world at the time of the Renaissance, fall behind Europe at the time? Why do small, isolated societies lose technologies? And so on.

(Diamond is the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, and The Third Chimpanzee, all well worth reading.)

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Neat! Thank you for the link; I just finished The Third Chimpanzee and am about to start Guns, Germs, and Steel.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm a Diamond fangirl. Who found out just last week that he'd given a talk in Dallas in February, and I had no idea. *cries*

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Interesting talk. I think he's starting to converge with Nonzero's take on the China/Europe question (which stresses political organization more than geography). That's a book I recommend highly:
http://www.nonzero.org/

[crispypoohs.livejournal.com]

For me, Diamond is rather arduous reading. However, I think that what I read from him has really been a big help in school -- and I really like some of his ideas. We had to read Guns, Germs, and Steel in grade 9, and actually got to go see him give a talk at the local university. I hated the process, but when the AP Human Geography test came around, the information and ideas I gathered from that book REALLY made a difference. (It even helped a lot last year on the essay portion of the AP World History exam). But yeah -- since he's actually pretty interesting once you get past the boring writing, I'm glad I've gone on to read Collapse. And now, I'm glad you pointed this out, cause I never woulud have found it.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

You think Diamond's boring? I can tell you've never read Marvin Harris' The Rise of Anthropological Theory. You would fall on your knees to kiss the ground that Diamond walks on after reading that one. XD

I first encountered Diamond's writing in Discover magazine, then picked up The Third Chimpanzee in grad school and never looked back. I've nver managed to fully read GG&S, but every so often I pick it up and read a chapter here or there. I'm probably about 75% of the way through it. I read Collapse all the way throug, though.

[crispypoohs.livejournal.com]

It might just be that anthropology isn't really my thing. I mean -- in high school, no one wants to read ANYTHING like what he writes. Sometimes Diamond's boring -- but sometimes it's fun (lol, I will never forget the sheep story in GG&S). The context in which I had to read it probably ruined the book for me, anyway. However, I did read Collapse without feeling as bogged down and disgruntled, so I suppose that's good.

What was The Third Chimpanzee about?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

He's really a level higher than high school - it'll be easier to read him once you're in college and have more biology/anthropology/psychology/economic type stuff under your belt.

The Third Chimpanzee is about human evolution - it's sort of a prequel to GG&S, actually - why we made the jump from just another big mammal to what we are. He's also got one called Why Is Sex Fun? about the evolution of human sexual biology.