Saturday, September 10, 2011

Jared Diamond (September 10, 1937)

Jared Diamond's most famous book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, is a masterpiece, and I've read it several times; I've read some of his other books as well, and attended some lectures he gave in Ann Arbor several years ago. All in all, I wouldn't identify anything particularly Jewish about the things he says about himself or about his works, and I wasn't even aware of his religion when I read them.

I did learn that in Diamond's Natural History article titled "Who Are the Jews" he acknowledges his Jewish identity. The article begins with a mention of his first trip to Israel, and of his immigrant Eastern European Jewish grandparents, who left Europe for America during the great migration that took place around 100 years ago. He then explores genetic and other scientific evidence about whether Jews are a coherent group.

"Who Are the Jews?" Natural History 102:11 (November 1993): 12-19

No comments:

Post a Comment