false 475 20 Jared Diamond's <I>Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed</I> is the glass-half-empty follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning <I>Guns, Germs & Steel</I>. While <I>Guns, Germs, & Steel</I> explained the geographic & environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, <I>Collapse</I> uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest & the Viking colonies of Greenland & Nova Scotia, as well as modern ones such as Haiti & Rwanda, have fallen apart. Not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, particularly when combined with society's response to or disregard for the coming disaster. Still, right from the outset of <I>Collapse</I>, the author makes clear that this isn't 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 & a depletion of natural resources. Once-vital mines now leak toxins into the soil, while prion diseases infect some deer & elk & older hydroelectric dams have become decrepit. On all these issues, & particularly with the hot-button topic of logging & wildfires, he writes with equanimity. Because he's addressing such significant issues within a vast span of time, he can occasionally speak too briefly & assume too much. At times his shorthand remarks may cause careful readers to raise an eyebrow. But in general, he provides fine & well-reasoned historical examples, making the case that many times, economic & environmental concerns are one & the same. With <I>Collapse</I>, Diamond hopes to jog our collective memory to keep us from falling for false analogies or forgetting prior experiences, & thereby save us from potential devastations to come. While it might seem a stretch to use medieval Greenland & the Maya to convince a skeptic about the seriousness of global warming, it's exactly this type of cross-referencing that makes <I>Collapse</I> so compelling.--Jennifer Buckendorff 1041106 book 2004 Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed total:5690|5:1529|4:2436|3:1364|2:287|1:74| 5690 22129 10416 991 3 11 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Tue Jul 17 01:16:36 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 25 18:31:26 -0700 2007
The real problem with Collapse is...more...]]> 5 7 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 22 06:12:09 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 31 04:33:30 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 5 false false Fri Jun 29 05:19:43 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 15 11:27:39 -0700 2007 Guns, Germs and Steel occasionally felt like monday morning quarterbacking, but Collapse is superb. In GG&S, Diamond tried to explain how technologies that evolved in some places did not in others, how some communities thrived due to excess food and more advanced agriculture, while others, perpetual...more...]]> 1 3 false false Thu Jun 28 16:39:28 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 28 16:41:04 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 14:55:59 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 31 21:04:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Mar 12 18:10:23 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 12 18:10:54 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon May 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 01 17:19:29 -0800 2008 Mon May 26 07:44:40 -0700 2008
I'm finally done! I know, nine weeks later...

For a specific rating, I would say the content is 4.5, readability is 3. This book is definitely worth reading, even if you don't plan on putting in the effort to thoroughly read each sectio...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 13 12:57:38 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 13 12:57:38 -0800 2007
Four or five stars for the first two-thirds. I loved learning about the resourceful, entertaining, and possibly suspect ways some archaeologists use to try to figure out how people lived a long long ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Jul 29 21:02:58 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 20 19:55:12 -0700 2007
Climate change,
Environmental preservation or degradation,
The presence of friendly external trade partners,
The presence of external enemies, and finally,
That society's ability a...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Oct 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 13 01:39:40 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 04 06:02:29 -0700 2008
On the side, I found the book very informative about the history of the societies. I particularly enjoy those about the Greenla...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 02 22:49:31 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 23:01:10 -0800 2009 4 1 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 17:57:44 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 25 17:59:04 -0800 2008 5 1 false false Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Feb 25 16:28:20 -0800 2007 Sun Feb 25 16:49:20 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Feb 28 09:00:34 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 09:09:20 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 1 false false Thu Feb 05 09:30:21 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:30:21 -0800 2009 Are we doomed, or can the next generation save us from ecological suicide? UCLA geography professor Diamond's provocative, interdisciplinary picture of social decline paints a bleak vision of our future. He writes well, has done impressive research, and tells fascinating stories. Yet, his thesis fai...

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First, on a more superficial level, it could have used another round or two of editing. There are multiple occasions where he hammers home the same point multiple times for the same culture, particularly in Chapters...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 19 10:11:56 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 19 10:38:19 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Sep 16 05:24:19 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 05:39:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Aug 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 04:37:31 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 30 04:42:22 -0700 2009 more...]]>