
Collapse
How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
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Narrated by:
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Christopher Murney
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By:
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Jared Diamond
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 AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"A thought-provoking book." (Booklist)
"An enthralling, and disturbing, reminder of the indissoluble links that bind humans to nature." (Publishers Weekly)
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For us all
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Jared accomplishes a similar task in "Collapse." I found myself looking forward to long walks in the park because I would be able to listen attentively to the audio book while I exercised.
I found the content alarming on many levels. But the information contained in "Collapse" is something that anybody who wants to claim to be a responsible citizen needs to hear.
"Collapse" is the best book I ever hated to hear.
The Best Book I Ever Hated To Hear!
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I found his evidence compelling enough that I'm re-thinking many of my long held positions. When a book causes me to ponder like that, I consider it an excellent investment.
It's so profound that I bought the hardcover too!
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Great Book
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If you want to pick up or listen to a book that says everything is rosy, fiction, then this might not be your book. If you want a great research book on why societies have not lasted and what might be some of the lessons, this is definitely your book. "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it", this at a time when the schools are getting rid of history classes to make the grade in other subjects.
Guns, Germs and Steel is his previous book and is an awesome read also.
He does it again!!!
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fascinating but oh so depressing
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Any additional comments?
In _Collapse_, Jared Diamond thoughtfully and respectfully examines the complex interplay of factors that lead to a society's success or failure. Although it reads like a college textbook at times, and some of the material could have been edited out with no loss of clarity, it certainly is a fascinating survey of various cultures and an illuminating guide to a complex set of issues facing all of humanity.A Careful Treatment of a Complex Issue
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Excellent
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The two points that I found unsatisfactorily address were: 1) How applicable are past lessons about resource use and reliance from Easter Island and Viking Greenland to 1st world societies today? 2) What factors outside of our environmental reliance on dwindling resources may also contribute to 1st-world collapse in the modern age? The first question was dealt with quickly only via a straw man argument, while the later is not touched on at all.
That said, the book does provide interesting cultural history lessons, and its applicability to the third world today (as evidenced in the Hati and Rwanda examples) is compelling. Diamond also provides a interesting look at what economic factors contribute to certain industries being more or less environmentally responsible. This section was compelling, but too small a portion of the whole text in my opinion.
If you are looking for a book on the management of natural resources, or a look at several interesting historical cultures, I think you will enjoy this book. If, like me, you are looking for a more pragmatic discussion of the large problems threatening society today, you may want to pass.
A Better Title: Environmental Collapses Then & Now
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Don't Play Around with Mother Nature
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