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Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings by Jared Diamond

from $12.80
Hardcover:

Can one person change the world? What qualities determine effective leadership? How do individual talent and historical circumstances combine to shape great leaders?

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, multimillion-copy bestselling classic Guns, Germs and Steel, a landmark study of leadership across politics, religion, business, and sports—seeking to decode how and why leaders matter.

“Jared Diamond’s erudite, engaging and thought-provoking book takes us a huge step forward toward understanding how circumstances and individual talents, determination and strategy make leaders that have the potential to change our world (hopefully for the better).” —Daron Acemoglu, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics

In his acclaimed and influential books Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings, he studies leaders throughout time to answer the question: do the actions of individuals truly influence history? Or is humanity subject to larger historical, technological, cultural, geographical forces, far beyond the influence of individuals, no matter how powerful they may seem?

On 13 March 1930, a truck sped into an intersection, headed straight for another car’s right front door. The passenger of this chauffeur-driven car happened to be Adolf Hitler. If the truck had hit the door, Hitler would have been crushed and killed. But the chauffeur managed to accelerate, and Hitler survived. Would tens of millions of people have died in the Holocaust and World War Two if the chauffeur had been slower to react? Some believe Hitler was unique in his evil abilities, while others think the war was guaranteed by the harsh conditions imposed on Germany post-war.

Do leaders like Hitler, Margaret Thatcher, Genghis Khan, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Belichick, or Christ really change our world? If yes, what qualities and circumstances are required of a leader to make their mark?

Drawing on his deep study of the life and career of a diverse cast of leaders famous and obscure– from Botswana president Seretse Khama, to environmentalist Rachel Carson, to legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden–Diamond reveals how leadership effectiveness is determined by a range of complex interrelated factors. Understanding these successes and failures and the opportunities leaders did (or did not) seize illuminates the influence of today’s leaders and helps us to reflect on the value of our votes, our faith, our passions, and the people who happen to steer our ship.

With the same remarkable scope of Diamond’s classic bestsellers, Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings takes readers on a rich journey through the lives of humanity’s most well-known characters to reveal how time, place, and person can come together to change the course of history.

Can one person change the world? What qualities determine effective leadership? How do individual talent and historical circumstances combine to shape great leaders?

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, multimillion-copy bestselling classic Guns, Germs and Steel, a landmark study of leadership across politics, religion, business, and sports—seeking to decode how and why leaders matter.

“Jared Diamond’s erudite, engaging and thought-provoking book takes us a huge step forward toward understanding how circumstances and individual talents, determination and strategy make leaders that have the potential to change our world (hopefully for the better).” —Daron Acemoglu, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics

In his acclaimed and influential books Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings, he studies leaders throughout time to answer the question: do the actions of individuals truly influence history? Or is humanity subject to larger historical, technological, cultural, geographical forces, far beyond the influence of individuals, no matter how powerful they may seem?

On 13 March 1930, a truck sped into an intersection, headed straight for another car’s right front door. The passenger of this chauffeur-driven car happened to be Adolf Hitler. If the truck had hit the door, Hitler would have been crushed and killed. But the chauffeur managed to accelerate, and Hitler survived. Would tens of millions of people have died in the Holocaust and World War Two if the chauffeur had been slower to react? Some believe Hitler was unique in his evil abilities, while others think the war was guaranteed by the harsh conditions imposed on Germany post-war.

Do leaders like Hitler, Margaret Thatcher, Genghis Khan, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Belichick, or Christ really change our world? If yes, what qualities and circumstances are required of a leader to make their mark?

Drawing on his deep study of the life and career of a diverse cast of leaders famous and obscure– from Botswana president Seretse Khama, to environmentalist Rachel Carson, to legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden–Diamond reveals how leadership effectiveness is determined by a range of complex interrelated factors. Understanding these successes and failures and the opportunities leaders did (or did not) seize illuminates the influence of today’s leaders and helps us to reflect on the value of our votes, our faith, our passions, and the people who happen to steer our ship.

With the same remarkable scope of Diamond’s classic bestsellers, Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings takes readers on a rich journey through the lives of humanity’s most well-known characters to reveal how time, place, and person can come together to change the course of history.

  • Publisher: Mariner Books

    Title: Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings

    Author: Jared Diamond

    On Sale Date: September 1, 2026

    ISBN 13: 978-0063517660

    ISBN 10: 0063517663

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $32.00

    BISAC: History / General; Political Science / History & Theory

    Page Count: 288

    Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 in

    Weight: 0.99 lb

  • Jared Diamond is a professor of geography at UCLA and the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, which has sold more than seven million copies worldwide. His other books — Collapse, The Third Chimpanzee, The World Until Yesterday, and Upheaval — carried that same sweeping, cross-disciplinary approach into questions of environment, biology, and civilizational crisis. His honors include the U.S. National Medal of Science, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and election to the National Academy of Sciences. In Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings, he turns that lens on individual leaders, asking how much any one person can really change the course of events.

  • Critics and fellow bestselling authors are calling it erudite, engaging, and entertaining:

    • “Erudite, engaging, and thought-provoking.” — Daron Acemoglu, Nobel Prize–winning economist

    • “Illuminating, surprising, and impossible to put down.” — Nico Voigtländer, UCLA Anderson School of Management

    • “The inquiries are fascinating, and sure to produce better dinner-table conversations.” — Ward Farnsworth, University of Texas at Austin

    • “A jaunty, entertaining look at the limits of leadership.” — Kirkus Reviews

This book is for you if

  • You've read Guns, Germs, and Steel or Collapse and want to see Diamond turn his sweeping historical lens on individual leaders.

  • You're drawn to big, contrarian questions — does one person really change the course of history, or do circumstances do all the work?

  • You want case studies that range from Hitler and Genghis Khan to Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Belichick, and Rachel Carson.

  • You like nonfiction that mixes politics, business, religion, and sports into one argument instead of staying in a single lane.

  • You're looking for a smart, discussion-worthy pick for a book club that likes to argue.

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