Download PDF Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond
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Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond
Download PDF Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond
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Amazon.com Review
Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is the glass-half-empty follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns, Germs, and Steel explained the geographic and environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. Not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, he argues, particularly when combined with society's response to (or disregard for) the coming disaster. Still, right from the outset of Collapse, the author makes clear that this is not a mere environmentalist's diatribe. He begins by setting the book's main question in the small communities of present-day Montana as they face a decline in living standards and a depletion of natural resources. Once-vital mines now leak toxins into the soil, while prion diseases infect some deer and elk and older hydroelectric dams have become decrepit. On all these issues, and particularly with the hot-button topic of logging and wildfires, Diamond writes with equanimity. Because he's addressing such significant issues within a vast span of time, Diamond can occasionally speak too briefly and assume too much, and at times his shorthand remarks may cause careful readers to raise an eyebrow. But in general, Diamond provides fine and well-reasoned historical examples, making the case that many times, economic and environmental concerns are one and the same. With Collapse, Diamond hopes to jog our collective memory to keep us from falling for false analogies or forgetting prior experiences, and thereby save us from potential devastations to come. While it might seem a stretch to use medieval Greenland and the Maya to convince a skeptic about the seriousness of global warming, it's exactly this type of cross-referencing that makes Collapse so compelling. --Jennifer Buckendorff
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In his Pulitzer Prize–winning bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, geographer Diamond laid out a grand view of the organic roots of human civilizations in flora, fauna, climate and geology. That vision takes on apocalyptic overtones in this fascinating comparative study of societies that have, sometimes fatally, undermined their own ecological foundations. Diamond examines storied examples of human economic and social collapse, and even extinction, including Easter Island, classical Mayan civilization and the Greenland Norse. He explores patterns of population growth, overfarming, overgrazing and overhunting, often abetted by drought, cold, rigid social mores and warfare, that lead inexorably to vicious circles of deforestation, erosion and starvation prompted by the disappearance of plant and animal food sources. Extending his treatment to contemporary environmental trouble spots, from Montana to China to Australia, he finds today's global, technologically advanced civilization very far from solving the problems that plagued primitive, isolated communities in the remote past. At times Diamond comes close to a counsel of despair when contemplating the environmental havoc engulfing our rapidly industrializing planet, but he holds out hope at examples of sustainability from highland New Guinea's age-old but highly diverse and efficient agriculture to Japan's rigorous program of forest protection and, less convincingly, in recent green consumerism initiatives. Diamond is a brilliant expositor of everything from anthropology to zoology, providing a lucid background of scientific lore to support a stimulating, incisive historical account of these many declines and falls. Readers will find his book an enthralling, and disturbing, reminder of the indissoluble links that bind humans to nature. Photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Product details
Hardcover: 592 pages
Publisher: Penguin Group USA Inc.; 1 edition (December 31, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0670033375
ISBN-13: 978-0670033379
Product Dimensions:
6.5 x 1.8 x 9.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.3 out of 5 stars
921 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#102,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Diamond uses a five point model to examine societies that have declined and collapsed and those that have thrived due to change. Examining the Mayan culture, the people of Easter Island and others, Diamond presents a thoughtful anaylsis as to how these very different cultures (one isolated with no enemies but a rich land and culture badly overtaxed the other a rich culture that that had many contacts and enemies to complicate their lives)to present models that we can use today to deal with these issues regarding the environment, social pressure and others that face our culture.Diamond's approach argues that none of these cultures were inferior and that they face the same ecological, environmental and, ultimately, social stressors as we do in our world today. He also takes a look at modern societies (including China and Australia)and how they are faring with the 12 modern types of environmental problems. In another section he looks at the good and bad that big business have contributed to the ecology. It's pretty fair balanced overall.Diamond suggests that societies ultimately choose to fail or succeed based on their problem solving skills, ability to be flexible and change prior to crisis mode. Essentially we can either be victims or lead the charge for change. I didn't feel that an examination of past cultures was a flaw like some reviewers; he examines them in more depth because we already know the outcome and can more clearly trace the evoltionary path that led to their undoing. That path shows up again when examining our modern world and the ways that we are both feeding choas and living with the resources we have as a nation and world. His point about how important it is to understand all of this in a globalized culture seems valid; there are too many interconnected countires now (unlike the Easter Island situation where they were, essentially, isolated and didn't have an impact on other cultures when they finally fell)and if one falls, ultimately, it will have a domino effect on other countries as well putting our world at peril and not just one or two countries.A warning about Diamond's book seems appropriate. It can be read by the lay person but the dense material might be daunting for some people. Skimming the book may give you can idea of the content but it won't have the same profound impact on your view of the world as reading it from cover to cover. I agree with Diamond's viewpoint on a single important point--change and flexibility will help a society thrive and a society that remains static, denies what occurs around it will fail.
"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
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.
I think the conclusions were oversimplified and dissenting opinions were not mentioned. I like the book for what it says about groups of people basically needing to adapt to a changing environment. I think it has some worthwhile information in that regard and the case studies were engaging, but I did get bogged down in places. I think the author could have picked up the pace in some of the vignettes and stretched it out a bit in the analysis at the end. Also, I read this for a class that required me to find independent peer reviewed sources. Many of them contradicted the author's anthropological and climatological conclusions. Use it as a parable and you're fine. Look too close and you may get lost in the weeds.
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