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Collapse

How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

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About this listen

 In his million-copy bestseller 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?

Look out for Jared Diamond's latest book, The World Until Yesterday, coming from Viking in January 2013.

 Anthropology Politics & Government Social Sciences World Africa Polar Region Ecosystem Latin America Imperialism Natural Resource Sustainability Caribbean Middle Ages Pollution Viking

What the critics say

"Mr. Diamond...is a lucid writer with an ability to make arcane scientific concepts readiily accesible to the lay reader, and his case studies of failed cultures are never less than compelling." —The New York Times

"...Collapse is a magisterial effort packed with insight and written with clarity and enthusiasm." —Businessweek

"Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse represent one of the most significant projects embarked upon by any intellectual of our generation. They are magnificent books: extraordinary in erudition and originality, compelling in their ability to relate the digitized pandemonium of the present to the hushed agrarian sunrises of the far past. I read both thinking what literature might be like if every author knew so much, wrote so clearly and formed arguments with such care." —Gregg Easterbrook, The New York Times Book Review
All stars
Most Relevant
Well written, researched with thoughtful and far reaching insights into societies and interactive human leadership and perspectives

Incredibly interesting and well presented book

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Great book, wonderful production. Highly recommend. should be listened to at 1.20 speed however. Learned a lot.

Bitterroot Valley for the win

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This book was written in 2005 so obviously it’s a bit dated, but no less relevant.

Considering how many people want to “leave Earth to live on Mars” I would say this book is more relevant than ever.

Jared Diamond is so careful to be objective and look at all factors. He’s not left wing or right wing. He gives credit where credit is due to NGOs and big business alike and offers warnings... a lot of warnings. I hope this book is a wake up call for individuals, CEOs, and politicians.

I hope this book is made mandatory reading for social studies classes in high school.

Ought to be a textbook

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extremely well thought out and put together. enables a very well rounded, mostly objective, yet nuanced view on our world and its environment.

LOVED IT!

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The solution to environmental problems is not to have the life he himself has. Also, we would have enjoyed our planet much more had there been no humans at all!

Stale green propaganda

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