Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed

by Diamond, Jared

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Description

New York: Viking, 2005. 575pp.. Hard Cover. VG/VG.

Book summary

Jared Diamond--a modern-day Gibbon with a scientific perspective--has created a study of the decline and fall of civilizations and societies that holds many lessons. In GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL, Diamond offered new and insightful reasons for the rise of civilizations; here he studies their fall, or collapse. His case studies include, among others, the once technologically-advanced Mayans, the Anasazi in North America, the Easter Island inhabitants, and the Vikings, showing how environment and bad decisions were often factors in their collapse. Diamond believes that the actions of humans can halt or prevent decline, as he shows in the case of modern-day Japan, which has embarked on ambitious reforesting--and, importantly, Jared says the signs are there long before the collapse. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 2005.