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

Customer Reviews Average rating - 4.0

Rating - 5 Date: 2009-01-05
Content: Human history is full of tantalizing riddles. Some of the most fascinating of these arise from the appearance of ancient ruins in unlikely places, such as Easter Island, or the dense jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula. To the uninitiated, these ruins are the ghosts of phantom civilizations whose disappearance is a mystery to our 21st Century minds. But like geologists reading Earth's history in the rocks, archaeologists can often read the history of past civilizations by studying the records of these ruins.

In Collapse, author Jared Diamond brings an inquisitive mind and a varied and distinguised career as a student of humanity to bear on some often-alarming questions about the mysterious disappearances of past cultures and societies. And he asks a disturbing question that often goes ignored in our modern, 21st Century World: If advanced cultures in the past have disappeared--sometimes almost without at trace--can this mysterious past be part of our own future? In this fascinating and highly informative book, Diamond offers some alarming lessons drawn from the historical record, as well as reason to hope for the future.

Employing a five-part analytical framework, the author studies a number of past and present civilizations, hoping to draw lessons to explain why some survived and prospered, while others withered and died. Among the factors which seem to affect a society's chances of enduring, he points to a civilization's environmental damage to its surroundings, the impact of climate change, the rise of hostile neighbors or dislocations caused by the decline of trading partners, as well as the choices made by the society itself when confronting past crises that arise through changing circumstances, as being the most important.

Although the infinite variety of people and circumstances makes firm conclusions beyond the reach of our limited knowledge, cultures as diverse as the Vikings and the Japanese, the Anastasi and the Australians, the Chinese and the Polynesians, have all faced similar challenges, many of which are well known to our own era. Ecological fragility, the overuse of both fixed and renewable resources, the over-extension of settlements, and the tenuous interconnections of trading networks are all problems that face 21st Century societies. Now, as throughout history, advanced cultures often export the depletion of their own resources to those of underdeveloped societies that are desperate for cash; and the effect of leaders who come to view their own interests as synonymous with those of their societies--and who therefore make decisions that sacrifice the interests of their people for their own--are hardly confined to ancient civilizations.

But the author gives us reason to hope, as well as cause for concern. Not all societies collapse: some are able to confront and overcome their problems; and others, blessed with rich abundance and a forgiving environment, are able to skirt disaster through dumb luck or good fortune. Throughout the book, the author presents the reader with an interesting blend of history and theory, and his readable and accessible prose enlightens and challenges the reader. This book is not for those made uncomfortable by thinking about the challenges that may lie ahead; but for readers interested in expanding their knowledge of the past, and thinking about the kind of world we may be leaving to our children, its central message is one of cautious hope, tempered with the reality that in this world, all things are transitory...and that even the mightiest civilizations are not immune from the consequences of their own folly.
Summary: Compelling Reading for Concerned Residents of Planet Earth

Rating - 5 Date: 2009-01-05
Content: The only unfortunate aspect of Diamond's comparative history is that it too often gets confused with the work of James Kunstler because both wrote books that appeal to readers interested in climate change. The difference is that Diamond is an actual geographer while Kunstler is just a lunatic. Collapse uses an anthropological framework to analyze extinct societies in terms of their relationship to the environment, including an extensive discussion of modern societies in varying degrees of social collapse due to an unsustainable relationship with survival resources.
Summary: Thorough, significant, and relevant anthropology

Rating - 4 Date: 2009-01-01
Content: First, let me say the real score I'd want to give this book is a 3.5 or 3.75.

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 6-8 dealing with the Greenland Norse. This book could have been slimmer by a solid 40-50 pages without losing much.

Also, he rarely cites his sources directly in the text, often just referring to researcher names. The "Further Reading" section lists many of the sources he used but is incomplete and for the most part doesn't given the specific content/pages for the information he's using. This is a real shame, especially given the high degree of scrutiny the book has received. I imagine the choice was probably motivated by a desire for the book to appeal to the masses more, but it also damages the book's ability to back up its claims. Also, I think it can allow the author to be sloppier with his analyses and conclusions.

This book, on the whole, is a very worthwhile and compelling read. The explanation of possible collapses is engaging and relevant to our world. Overall, I think he does an excellent job of giving plausible reasons for why past collapses have had large environmental causes. The comparisons between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as the further explanation behind the Rwanda genocide, were especially illuminating. He uses a lot of actual data that is hard to argue with and gives enough evidence and reason to support importance of being good caretakers of our environment, for both the present and the future. He also uses his own experiences to serve as useful examples of his larger themes.

There are flaws. A few times when something was in dispute or not clear based on the available evidence, he leaned toward environmental reasons that supported his thesis. Often he would interject that some of it was merely his speculation, but countering views were not always addressed fairly (though many were). This may have as much to do with Diamond as it does with the demand of audiences and publishers to have focused books that don't allow for too many perceived uncertainties (more a problem with popular science non-fiction than with research journals and the like).

Overall though, I felt he was as objective as a biased person can be. I don't mean that as an insult but a compliment. He clearly is on the side of environmental concerns but I think he was about as objective as someone can be when they passionately fall on one side of an issue. For a counterexample of that, I recall a review that claimed Diamond was constantly bashing Bush towards the end of the book, but in fact he only brought him up directly one time that I recall (the 90-day perspective).

There are a few areas of his research that raises questions as to the validity of some of his claims. In particular, some of his claims about Australia. See http://www.ipa.org.au/library/EE%2016-3+4_Marohasy.pdf and http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1509193.htm for further details, though be skeptical about some of those claims as well. For example, Marohasy claims Diamond says in "Collapse" that Australia imports most of its food (which it does not). However, Diamond did not claim that, as on page 395 he writes "Australia produces more food than it consumes and is a net food exporter." There are some other inconsistencies/errors in Marohasy's work but she does indeed point out some of Diamond's errors as well.

Also, about Easter Island, see: http://www.staff.livjm.ac.uk/spsbpeis/EE%2016-34_Peiser.pdf which includes many of the objections to Diamond's version of events. I find this paper to be much more dubious than Marohasy's, as it is very aggressively argued and contains less scientific data. Additionally, the author claims cannibalism is a myth of European fear, but there is some potential (not overwhelming by any means) evidence for cannibalism on Easter Island that he ignores, as well as much more conclusive evidence in other cultures that cannibalism does not result only out of isolated pockets of desperation, all of which he denies. He also criticizes Diamond for relying on oral histories and early European reports, then goes on to do the same thing when it suits his goals. However, some of his points and the research he uses is reason for skepticism about the collapse of Easter Island.

About the photosynthetic ceiling which Diamond briefly brings up in Chapter 15, this is a good and reasonable rebuttal: http://www.isg-fi.org.uk/spip.php?article623 that shows that much of Diamond's reasoning and extrapolations are rather flawed about this detail.

I bring up these examples so that people can explore differing data and explanations of similar data and also to reinforce the fact that gathering evidence and making it fit coherently is difficult. Diamond is incorporating an immense amount of data into a large thesis and so I think one should not expect him to be perfect nor to dismiss him because of some errors.

So, in short, read this book. It's important and I think makes a largely supported and valid case that we need to pay greater attention to our environment or else we will suffer in the future. But don't accept everything at face value and do seek out other explanations (and question those as well); the Internet is a very valuable resource. One can't possibly investigate every detail and every source, but some effort in this regard will pay off in a more balanced perspective. I say try to step away from the us versus them dichotomy that seems to afflict many reviews of this book as well as interpretations/analyses of this book. As often is the case, the truth is nebulous but rarely centered at either extreme.

Summary: A Compelling But Imperfect Look Into Environmental Reasons For Collapse And What It Means For Our World

Rating - 5 Date: 2008-12-16
Content: This comprehensive look at humanity's impact on our environments (past and present) is a critical read for everyone alive today. I found it so important that I bought five copies and sent them to family and friends.

The first chapter is pretty slow--though I've been contradicted on this--but from there on the book really takes off, so stick with it. Lovers of history will thoroughly enjoy the sections on past societies, and anyone concerned with or curious about the global environmental challenges we face today will find everything extremely relevant. The picture Diamond paints is fairly grim, but he concludes with an optimistic look forward and advice on how we might proceed.

Please read this book. You will not regret it.
Summary: Read this book.

Rating - 5 Date: 2008-12-06
Content: Unreadable, though Jared Diamond is brilliant, his rambling often monotonous descriptions of ancient civilization are hard to follow due to the unceasingly clunky prose style. It doesn't help that the first chapter is about Montana, AHH!
Summary: As Turgid As Gray Oatmeal (It won't let me give it less than 5, 1 STAR 1 STAR)