Collapse

How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

By: Jared Diamond

Narrated by: Christopher Murney

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

In his million-copy best seller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now in this brilliant companion volume, Diamond probes the other side of the equation: what caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates?

As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Moving from the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe. Environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of these societies, but other societies found solutions and persisted. Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways. Despite our own society's apparently inexhaustible wealth and unrivaled political power, ominous warning signs have begun to emerge even in ecologically robust areas like Montana.

Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: how can our world best avoid committing ecological suicide?

©2004 Jared Diamond (P)2004 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A thought-provoking book." (Booklist)
"An enthralling, and disturbing, reminder of the indissoluble links that bind humans to nature." (Publishers Weekly)

Great.

Amazingly researched and thorough, this thought provoking text examines both the historical and present societies on earth. Although at times tedious, Jared Diamond begins his findings at Easter Island and concludes with Australia. I recommend this to anyone interested in the natural and physical sciences of the world.

Diamond's wonderful scope of past societies

A unique view of the failing of past societies, while many works focus on the rise of various societies, Diamond again wrote a review of past collapses. Unique.

Collapse - under the weight of a huge ego

It seems that a number of historical societies collapsed after a 1000 or more years of living in horrible environments successful bc they didn't have Jared Diamond's amazing intellect. But good news we do, so we'll be fine.

Well researched and usefull!

Very interesting and eye-opening/. It is easy to see the possibility of decline in modern socities. What goes around comes around! Could the US be next!

an fascinating book, but better on paper

This book is clearly recognizable as coming from the same fine intellect as "Guns, Germs and Steel." However, it suffers from two problems unique to the audiobook format. The first problem is that the logic suffers somewhat from the abridgement. Even worse, as a scientist I found it very irritating not to be able to consult the figures, diagrams, and references that come with the paper copy of the book. I definitely recommend buying the hardcopy instead of the audiobook. However, the points that Jared Diamond makes in this book are so interesting and important, and are so well-illustrated with anecdotes about various cultures, that I have to say: if the audiobook version is the only way that you will read this book, than by all means buy it.

ecological doomsayer

This book was well written for the first half providing fascinating and startling accounts of the demise of cultures and societies we have wondered about many times. The Easter Island story I have retold to countless friends. I recommend the book on this basis alone.

However, the second half of the book fails to live up to the title. It does not provide a framework for discussing the demise of civilizations existant today. Instead it turns into a typical ecological diatribe falling into the tired and idiotic doomsday preaching of the Ehrlichs and other authors who have been proven wrong time after time for their absurd projections about wildlife mass extinctions, DDT mania, cancer mania, resource exhaustion, famines and other doomsday scenarios promulgated by a highly politicized group of hardcore environmentalists who have been proven wrong time after time for decades.

If you like such doomsday books I suggest you balance it with a few readings that are more optimistic. There are such books. We continue to solve our problems, expand our knowledge, technology and ability to control our circumstances exponentially every year. If things were going so bad wouldn't people be dying younger every year or less food be produced or streams, rivers, lakes or our air be getting more polluted not less? Try reading some books that point out the real possibilities we have to increase food production, cure diseases, produce energy from many alternative sources, etc... You'll feel a lot better and it will be much more accurate predictions.

What I expected

In listening to the sample and reading the review, I expected a diatribe about how societies often collapse due to their failure to be a good steward of their environment. My disappointment was that the author gave no consideration to any other cause of societal collapse. I would agree that societies often, and perhaps almost always collapse due to environmental factors, however it would have been nice to see some examples that were related to other factors such as warfare, moral degradation, political change etcetera. As with so many things in our current “Green” world, the book seems to focus on just the environment and avoids looking at the complete picture. A better title for the book would be “The Collapse of Societies Due To Environmental Factors”. I was expecting a visit to ancient Rome, Greece, Mesopotamia, Egypt, etc. however these societal collapses were avoided. Overall, the book was interesting but I felt it was a lecture on environmentalism rather than a comprehensive examination of the various causes of collapse.

Great examples

Instead of choosing to explain historical and scientific principles through theories, Jared Diamond chooses to explain his theories through real-life examples, focusing on the practical details. Collapse is a mixture of brief accounts covering societies from the Mayans to the Vikings and their reasons for failure. The book focuses mainly on the environmental aspects, but the social aspects are covered as well. The only thing I did not like 100% is that sometimes the author focuses too much on the environmental side, covering even the smallest details of rock composition, plant water consumption, etc. and I would have like to hear more about the social-economic aspects; but I am a social scientist, so my bias in this area is obvious.

Great!!

Very interesting look at how we live and intereact with our enviroment. It really makes you think. It is interesting that we appear to be following the old pattern that brought down many societies in the past. We are just doing it on a larger scale.
Recommend!!!

Something to Think about

Jared Diamond answers a question that most of us don't want to think about: How and why did earlier groups fall apart and how can we think, act, & live our lives so that we do not go down the same path. Good reading for everyone who hopes their children will have atleast as good a life as we have experienced and especially for anyone who can help (politicans?) or wants to see the ideals and learning of our times continued into the future.