Author’s visit adds eloquence to year-long discussion

While inhabitants of the Walla Walla Valley live today with a legacy marked by the decline of the native Cayuse Indians and their replacement by Euro-American settlers, an important question remains: What led to this kind of dominance by European societies?

In many ways, the characteristic history of the Walla Walla Valley imparted a resonance to recent speaker Jared Diamond’s compelling insights, which explore the “chains of causation” that led to the dominance of Eurasian society in our area and throughout the world.

Diamond, who addressed a large crowd in Cordiner Hall February 1, is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (required reading for first-year students this year). He also is the author of The Third Chimpanzee, five other books, and more than 500 scientific articles.

A professor of physiology at the University of California in Los Angeles, Diamond has earned an extraordinary array of distinctions, including more than 20 literary prizes and the National Medal of Science. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and he is recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

Yet those honors only hint at what makes Diamond and his work important. More than a physiologist, Professor Diamond is considered a world-class evolutionary biologist, ecologist, ornithologist, and leader in the field of conservation biology.

“We need people like Jared Diamond,” said Whitman assistant professor of biology Delbert Hutchison. In an academic world of increasing specialization, Diamond, he noted, “asks the big questions, helps in synthesizing the findings of various specialties and disciplines, and allows us to see the emerging pictures and patterns.”

According to associate professor of biology Kendra Golden, the degree to which Diamond successfully draws upon a variety of scientific fields to find some unified pattern of societal development and interaction remains unprecedented. At the very least, she said, his findings will spur discussions and reframe the debates. “I don’t know how sweeping these ideas will be in the academic world, but they will definitely have an impact.”

Guns, Germs, and Steel has had its own impact on the Whitman campus. Last summer, President Cronin sent copies of the book to the new first-year class, asking them to read it in preparation for discussion at Whitman. In addition, the book has been read and talked about widely across the campus by other students as well as faculty and staff.

Diamond’s lecture served as the capstone for a stimulating year of discussion.

— Eric Pfeifer, ’02