Books: Francis Fukuyama and Jared Diamond

Aloud at Central Library brings together two formidable scholars for a discussion on the origins of the world’s social and political institutions and their relation to tribal order and environmental history. Francis Fukuyama, the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Relations at Stanford University, is the author of “The End of History and the Last Man” and, most recently, “The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution.” Jared Diamond is a professor of geography at UCLA and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Guns, Germs, and Steel” (now a PBS special), “Collapse” and “The Third Chimpanzee.” Mark Taper Auditorium at Central Library, 630 W. 5th St., L.A. 7 p.m. Thu. Free. Full; stand-by only. (213) 228-7500. https://www.aloudla.org.