Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition
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Publisher : Penguin Books; Revised edition (January 4, 2011)
Language : English
Paperback : 608 pages
ISBN-10 : 0143117009
ISBN-13 : 01
Reading age : 18 years and up
Lexile measure : 1460L
Item Weight : 1.25 pounds
Dimensions : 1.3 x 8.42 x 5.46 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #19,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #5 in Mayan History (Books) #14 in Environmental Policy #16 in Historical Geography
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Top Amazon Reviews
"Collapse" is my third Jared Diamond book and, as before, he does not disappoint. Combining Anthropology, History and Geography with Environmental studies of how humans use, and misuse, Natural Resources, Diamond draws interesting insights into past societies and how their fates can relate to our modern world. To support his conclusions Diamond cites the findings and thoughts of many specialists, past and present, as well as his own field research at various locations around the world. With in depth proses "Collapse" gives the reader plenty of food for thought. Starting with his experiences in modern day Montana, Diamond examines the state's issues with logging, mining, soil erosion, water conservation and wildlife, both native and foreign. The insights by local ranchers, miners, loggers, rural and urban people give you an idea on how Montanans feel about government regulations and laws on those issues. Moving on to past societies the author follows the same scenario. In depth histories of such far flung places as Easter Island, Greenland and Iceland, New Guinea and Japan explains how they may have dealt with the same environmental problems that plague us today. I really enjoyed the Easter Island history and how this isolated speck of land moved from a sub-tropical paradise to a barren, treeless island and what role religion may have played in it's story. Up north the Vikings were facing their own problems when they colonized Greenland. At first they did well but conditions slowly deteriorated and when the Inuit returned, the Norse colonist were faced with human competitors as well as environmental challenges. The Anasazi and the Mayans are also looked at, how each society dealt with changing conditions and leaders that failed to address their many problems of population and environment. Changing to modern societies Diamond looks at the Rwandan Genocide, the issues faced by The Dominican Republic and Haiti. China's and Australia's evolving societies and how they are moving into today's world. With all this background Diamond discuses his conclusions and poses questions like; Why do some societies make the wrong decisions? What role do Big Business and the environment play in our future survival? The chapter on Big Business is especially enlightening with segments on Oil and Mining Companies, the Logging and Seafood Industry and how these vital businesses effect our future, for good or ill. Lastly he poses the question of what, if anything, can we learn from past societies's successes and failures. This is a great book, one that covers a lot of issues and gives both sides of the story. Jared Diamond is one of the best writers of science and history. He consistently takes me into new realms of wonder with interesting topics and unique insights. While I experienced no down loading problems with this Kindle edition is did notice a couple of "quality control" issues. Through out the book there were several places where punctuation's were left out and in the chapter on the Vikings in Greenland; the word "fjord" was replaced with "3ord". In neither case was the problem bad enough so that I couldn't follow the text, nonetheless it showed a certain lack of that quality control by the publisher. Regardless, this is a book well worth reading and I'm glad to have it on my Kindle. Last Ranger
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Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2015 by LastRanger
Not too long ago I interviewed someone for a teaching position at the high school level. She has a PhD in a pretty arcane field and has held prestigious academic positions in a very highly respected university. I asked her to name an author that she thought significantly affected what she brought to her classroom. I expected her to talk about someone I had never heard of that I'd want to go out and buy, and she did, eventually. But she started with hardly a moment's hesitation talking about how Jared Diamond not only taught her content, but served as a role model for how one can take a complex idea and make it accessible to people who don't walk around with doctorates (her students.) --She got the job. In the process, she nailed what distinguishes Diamond from so many other popular authors. No one grasps and coveys a sweeping vision not only of our past, but our present better than he does. For my money, Collapse is a more important book than GG&S. I used to teach an upper level course that combined Earth Science, History and Government. I assigned parts of this book then, but were I to teach it again, I would require students to read it in its entirety before the course began.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2020 by Hop Pocket
Why did ancient civilizations (Anasazi, Easter Island, Maya, the Norse colonies on Greenland and North America, and others) fail? Why was Iceland nearly denuded of vegetation? Why does it appear that the Bitterroot Valley in Montana, USA, is "in trouble"? Diamond presents descriptions and explanations in the framework of science and reason, applying archaeology, anthropology, palynology, and other sciences including dating by tree rings and carbon decay. In some cases (Iceland) factors unknown to settlers were largely instrumental. In some cases, it appears that bad decisions by leaders and the population, itself, were instrumental. What lessons can we learn? If you are younger than 20 or have children or grandchildren, you owe it to yourself or them to read and understand this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2018 by Busy Guy in Peachtree City
This book changed my life in two ways. Being mathematically and scientifically gifted as a youth I avoided reading all fiction and much nonfiction. But at age 26 my dad recommended this book and I fell in love with reading as a result. It’s amazing what a good book can do. And this is definitely a good book. The Author gets a lot of praise for Guns Germs and Steel but I feel this book, COLLAPSE, is maybe even better, and it certainly has a message that we must heed if we don’t want to find ourselves in an environmental crisis of our own making where it’s already too late. The second way this book changed my life is DAILY it made me take deep respect for our availability of good fresh inexpensive, diverse, tasty food and other products that make our lives so comfortable. After he described life in dismal circumstances of a society in end-game collapse I never took a trip to a Target store without paying my respects to civil society which has made the solution to our every need just 5 minutes drive away. I’ve also never walked into a Target store without thinking of Jared Diamond and how he opened my eyes to the blessings we have in plain sight. Thank you, Jared Diamond.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2021 by SPFJR
GG&S and 3rd Chimp were incredibly researched insightful well presented information and explanation of human beings. In collapse, he goes too far using a few examples of failed societies like Somalia to promote his opinion on environmentalism in conservation excetera. Where is his explanation of why and how the Roman Empire failed?
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Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2018 by Jake Wilson