Jared Diamond’s blockbuster Guns, Germs, and Steel won him a Pulitzer Prize and a place among the most influential thinkers of our time. His lecture of the same name takes audiences on an intellectual odyssey that challenges assumptions about the rise and fall of civilizations and highlights technology’s role in human history. Diamond’s books, and this lecture, brim with examples of how technology propelled progress in some societies much more quickly than in others; how humans domesticated animals and crops; and how regional weather patterns helped or hampered technological and societal progress. Diamond provides insight into how we have arrived at our place in history and where we may be going.
This annual lecture recognizes the significant contributions to the Chicago Humanities Festival made by its founder and chairman emeritus Richard J. Franke.
