(When) Do Leaders Matter? Jared Diamond Hardcover Philosophy/Social From one of the world's leading intellectuals and the Pultizer Prize winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and other bestsellers, comes a landmark study of leadership across politics, religion, business, and sports — seeking to decode how and why leaders matter. When do the actions of an individual truly make a difference? Do leaders like Hitler, Margaret Thatcher, Genghis Khan, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Belichick, or Christ really change our world? If so, under what cirumstances can this happen? With fascinating in-depth stories and theoretical experiments, Diamond explores the impact of “good” and “evil” leaders in politics, business, sports, and religion to answer these questions. He evaluates the importance of specific leaders in these spheres from Harry Truman to Jeff Bezos to John Wooden using metrics such as national economic growth rates, company profits, and percentage of wars or games won. 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 international 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.