Jessica Pepe 2008-11-20

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

In Collapse, Jared Diamond explains the failure or survival of societies spanning thousands of years and diverse geographies. Despite the subtitle, as he examines the complex ecological and social systems, it seems that, knowing what they did, there is little the 'failed' societies could have chosen to do differently. The answer to why some make it and some don't occasionally comes down to simple geography, but most often it has to do with how they adapt to their environment, not realizing that their way of life is, in the long run, unsustainable.


Diamond makes the decisions and fate of the inhabitants of Easter island seem as logical and important as the concerns of modern day residents of Montana, and the broad variety of groups profiled shows why we can't think ourselves immune to the same problems.

Clean as a Cat 2008-11-19

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

I needed this for a class and it came very quick, in great shape, and it's a terrific book for the price.

Helga Mohammed el-Salami 2008-10-22

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

The esteemed Jared Diamond, author of one of the most insightful and profound books of the previous decade: Guns Germs and Steel, tried to break the wave of his success on Collapse, a book about the failure of societies due to a laundry-list of (mostly environmental) issues.

It's too soon to render a verdict on the bearded Professor (unlike Paul Ehrlich and Rachel Carson) since he wisely chose topics which cannot be gauged within a human lifetime but the book itself was a real steaming pile of environmental compost. I can't resist quoting Fred L. Smith Jr. of the Competitive Enterprise Institute: "[a] jumble of jigsaw puzzle pieces laid out on the table - no structure, no serious organization." Indeed, I was so angry after reading this book that I wanted to rip out the 592 pages and use every single one to give the author paper cuts between his toes. Then set him out barefoot on the New Guinea lowlands about which he can't seem to shut the flock up. But this is a book review and I digress because I'm getting all worked up again so I'm going to end this paragraph prema

Knud A. Hermansen 2008-09-02

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

This book makes an good and convincing case for the importance of environmental issues as they affect the well being of all societies developed and developing.

The book is centered around the collapse of past societies, although this is only one of four sections in the book. The first section concerns the environmental problems of Montana to give the reader a personal perspective of societies interaction with its environmental problems. The second section gives the book its title and Diamond goes into the collapse of several historical societies - the Maya, Easter Island, the Greenland Norse, and numerous other societies. One of Diamond's strengths is that he tries to end on a positive note and in the second section he examines historical societies that overcame environmental problems. The third section looks at modern societies facing environmental problems - Hati, Rwanda, Australia and others. Here the author looks at how the same problems that affected past societies are still relevant because they are affecting societies around us today. He also looks to strengthen the connection that he started in the first two sections between environmental problems and political problems. Diamond goes through great lengths to stress that he does not believe that one's fate is solely determined by the environment, but he makes a good case that a society cannot properly combat their political fate without understanding their environmental problems. The forth section is meant to make all of the lessons discussed in the previous chapters relevant to the readers of the book - mainly well-off, first world citizens. He looks at the obstacles to confronting environmental problems and how to best influence companies and societies.

Throughout the book I think Diamond makes a good effort to maintain a balance view and to legitimately understand and address the complaints that many people raise to environmentalist agendas. While I do not consider this to be an overarching book on the world's problems and how to solve them, it would be a good addition to the reading list of anyone who wants to understand the relationship of environmental and political problems and some steps that can be taken to solve them.

A. Rehm 2008-08-26

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Not quite as good as his best-known book, "Guns, Germs and Steel", mostly because the first 50 pages are about Montana. Who cares about Montana? I barely even know where it is. But after that it gets wicked awesome. Unfortunately you can't really skip the Montana parts - too many concepts are introduced that you'll need later - but hey, it's Diamond; you can suck it up for 50 pages. Vikings come later. Vikings!