Collapse

How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

De: Jared Diamond

Narrado por: Michael Prichard

In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization.

Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted. As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe, and weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Collapse moves 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. 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?

©2014 Jared Diamond (P)2014 Penguin Audio

Relevant but outdated

Mr Diamond’s book is still relevant but since it was published in 2005 many changes have occurred in the world. I always enjoy his work and would suggest listening to this one. You will be able to imagine how he would have modified it today.

For anyone interested in the environment & future

an absolutely amazing book that has detailed histories of past societies and what that means for our societies today. it address's the problems that we see and what we SHOULD be doing to combat them

Excellent book

Very well researched, well written, interesting book. Many good case studies support the authors conclusions.

Indispensable for those who seek the big picture

You will wiser for it, and it might start you down a life-changing path. Hopefully, enough people will read this book, and others like it, to make a difference for our ourselves, our children, and Mother Earth.

a must read for, well, everyone.

it's a lot of information on a complex topic, but Diamond makes his case well with some very interesting history and current situations.

History, all around us.

Collapse is concise, easy to understand, and vast in it's scope. A course in evolution, human nature, Mother Earth, and complex social problems. A sobering wakeup call to Humanity which was written some 15 years ago, and so was unable to foresee the disastrous rise of Donald Trump.

A true history lesson

A very detailed look at what happened to past civilizations and what could happen to ours.

Revolutionary Yet Compassionate

My respect for Diamond grew even greater after reading this book. He has a gift for quiet, sober analysis, always seeking reasons for the mistaken decisions made by past and present societies rather than condemning them out of hand. He calmly demonstrates the shocking realities of environmental destruction, but then provides hope for reversing the trend. You sense he is the type of person who could have a cordial dinner with a conservative Republican oil magnate and a liberal Democrat NGO manager, drawing the two closer together while fully maintaining his integrity.

Narrator made this hard to follow.

Will get the paper version instead. Diamond has a brilliant offering here. Will get the book.

This book is very eye opening and understandable.

This is book is especially deep. It allows you to get a deep understanding of the world. I'm very satisfied with this book and it has become my favorite book that I have read. I would recommend this Audio from audible as well, to read along as you read. This book is great for anyone willing to input your time and energy into reading it. By the way I'm sixteen, so this book can be read by teenagers with great interest. Don't limit yourself. READ THIS BOOK.