Political Crises in Recent History

political crises in recent history with jared diamond poster

The Oxford Centre for Global History will be hosting a workshop on ‘Political Crises in Recent History’ with Professor Jared Diamond as part of the Weidenfeld-Hoffman Trust’s Humanitas series in the History of Ideas 2016-17. Professor Diamond will be discussing case studies from his current book project, a comparative study of selective change in response to national crises in a selection of modern countries, such as Japan in the Meiji Era; Finland during and after its wars with the Soviet Union; Chile before and after the tumult and coup of the 1960’s-1980’s; Indonesia up to and following the failed coup of 1965; post war Britain; post war Australia; and post war Germany.

Jared Diamond is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Originally trained in physiology, his interests have led him to make contributions in the fields of anthropology, geography, ecology and evolutionary biology. He is a prolific author, and several of his works - most notably The Third Chimpanzee (1991); the Pullitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs and Steel (1997); Collapse (2005); and The World Until Yesterday (2012) - have had a major impact on public discourse. As a leading public intellectual, Diamond contributes to a range of debates and is particularly interested in traditional societies, particularly through his long relationship with the island of New Guinea. He sits on the editorial board of the Skeptic Magazine, and is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences. He is also the US Regional Director of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Convenors: James Belich and Erica Charters

Please note that this event is now fully booked