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)

A relentless, pointless slog...

This book was an unremarkable diatribe about the impending end of civilization due to our lack of environmental stewardship. It was such a slog. The author pummels you with item after item describing the impending end of our ecosystems, often with no hope that we can stop it. The book is a luddites delight, cataloguing the evils of mining, chemicals, manufacturing and commercial agriculture; pretty much what sustains modern life. As usual, the author offers no viable alternatives or solutions, just an over done word canvass of our impending demise. I so wish he had said something useful.

Disappointing.

What would have made Collapse better?

The book needs to move faster. It seemed like a lot of the information was filler. I could have really done without the long discussion of Montana. The book doesn't tie past events into the present very well.

If you’ve listened to books by Jared Diamond before, how does this one compare?

I haven't listened, but I read Guns Germs and Steel. Similar style, but Collapse was more pedantic.

Would you be willing to try another one of Christopher Murney’s performances?

No. I enjoy most audiobooks tha I listen to, but this one was narrated like a sports event, or a WWII newsreel. The style was grating and it was impossible to lose myself in the book due to the narration style. It was hard to get through.

What character would you cut from Collapse?

The state of Montana.

Any additional comments?

I love social histories that tie together the issues of human behavior, society, the environment, and micro / macro trends. I really expected to enjoy this book. That I didn't, I think, was due to the combination of performance and narrative. While Easter Island is a classic in societal collapse, maybe I've read too much about that in the past - it was mostly repetitive. I think the info about moving the big heads was either controversial or out of date - I've read other accounts. With the section on Montana, I kept thinking, "aren't there better examples, or does the author just like to vacation there?" I liked the section on Vikings in Greenland, but it seems like he repeated himself a number of times, stating that the Vikings would have done better to intermarry with Inuit. Plus, I suspect the Vikings and the Inuit were probably equally unhappy about the other being there, but the story seemed more one sided than that.

Skips half the book?

I’m bad at concentrating so i got this audio book to read along with the actual hard copy of the book. But this audio version skips half of the content of the book? Such a waste.

Disappointing

I really wanted to give Jared Diamond a chance. Unfortunately, this massive work is missing one important thing: a thesis. After listening for several hours, it's clear that Diamond is just listing anecdotes of environmental sociology. An alternate title should've been "Collapse: Some Crummy Ways Civilizations Sometimes Die."

too much effort

There are some interesting sections of this book, but it goes on and on in some sections without providing much insight or information. Could have been half the length to cover the topics. If you liked guns, germs and steel you may not like this one at all. A dissappointment.