Discrediting Racism

GAMBIER, Ohio (September 23, 2003) Jared Diamond, author of the national best seller and Pulitzer-Prize winning book Guns, Germs and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies, will speak about his work at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 1, in Kenyon College's Rosse Hall auditorium. The following day, Thursday, October 2, Diamond will hold an open discussion at 11:10 a.m. in Rutherford B. Hayes Hall, room 109.

Diamond has stated that his goal is to try to explain the broad pattern of human history, on all the continents, for the last 13,000 years. He examines the question of why history took such courses for peoples of different continents. Moreover, he brings to this question his expertise in two scientific areas: physiology and evolutionary biology. "Biology is the science," he says. "Evolution is the concept that makes biology unique."

Diamond's analysis of history runs very much counter to race-based theories of human development. He hopes that his work helps to discredit racist notions of history and racism generally.

A graduate of Harvard College with a doctorate from the University of Cambridge in England, Diamond is professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Until recently, he was professor of physiology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. In addition to numerous scholarly publications, he has written two other books for general audiences: The Third Chimpanzee, which won the Los Angeles Times book award for the best science book of 1992 and Britain's 1992 Rhome-Poulenc Science Book Prize; and Why is Sex Fun?

Diamond's visit to Kenyon is sponsored by the Faculty Lectureships Committee.