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Liked It4 of 4 members found this review helpful “Learning from History? |
Didn’t Like It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “This is the most boring book I've ever read. I do care about the environment, but it was so long and every chapter had repetition.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Wow! What an amazing book. Shows us how civilisations have been wiped out by climate change and yet we are doing nothing about it on a global scale! Jared Diamond's books are great. Strongly recommend. ”
Lascelles wrote this review 3 weeks ago. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“ This is a scientific page-turner. Diamond is the Stephen Hawking of historians, brilliantly recounting the history of so many societies large and small that I am in awe. (And I originally trained as an historian!).
Linda Riebel wrote this review Sunday, April 22, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The overall goal is to help awaken people’s political will to make necessary changes in our way of life before it’s too late. History teaches (as if we didn’t know) that civilizations die in part because they destroy their environments. This is not news – what’s news in this book is the detail, the meticulous reasoning and evidence, and the personal narrative of Diamond’s travels around the world to some of the places he describes. What was new to me also is how quickly an apparently thriving society can fall off a cliff to its demise, or at least to a drastically curtailed standard of living.
The story of Easter Island has often been told – how its “discoverers” in the 1770s found a few thousand people eking out a precarious, primitive existence, yet surrounded by hundreds of the most astonishing, massive statues ever made, which were clearly relics of a previous civilization. What happened? Read this book and find out! Many more cultures and their declines are described in equally riveting detail.
Diamond has drawn on a massive amount of research, some of it his own, to highlight the 5 causes of a civilization’s decline: environmental damage wrought by humans; natural climate change; loss of friendly trading partner societies; attacks from hostile societies; and a society’s response to its problems.
Let you think this is another gloomy morbid preview of a predetermined apocalypse, that is just what this book is NOT. Diamond’s fifth point above is that a society can CHOOSE to respond sensibly to its challenges, and he gives examples from past and present. His concluding section is titled “Reasons for Hope” and he makes clear that it is up to us to make the difference.”
“Read the awesome "Guns, Germs & Steel" by Diamond, then read this.”
Jeremy R. Hammond wrote this review Friday, April 6, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Dare I say it; I think Collapse is actually better than Guns, Germs, & Steel. Diamond's thesis is just as novel and important, and the writing is nearly as difficult to plow through. The examples he uses are appropriate and accurate, but will be very unfamiliar to most readers. While its probably not as popular due to a higher ecological viewpoint and less political, its a must read if you enjoy Diamond's deterministic approach to history.”
Jonathan Dent wrote this review Monday, March 19, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Really good, but not a fun read”
TODD D CYRULIK wrote this review Sunday, March 4, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Excellent.”
Melanie R wrote this review Tuesday, January 3, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“ Jared Diamond's Collapse is a story of fallen civilizations and how they came to their end, which poses the unasked, but nevertheless inevitable question; how is the human race going to fall? This is a fascinating plunge into history that explores the common theme among the failures among both small and complex societies. It is a superbly written book that gives thought to anybody who sees beyond their self-gratification.
Jenny wrote this review Monday, January 30, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I don't really think it should be on the "ALA books every student should read before college list...While it is a pretty good book, I don't think it is a modern classic, or a classic at all for that matter. But hey, if you like nonfiction mixed with a little anthropology, then definetely read this. ”“A history of human civilizations that have failed. The author highlights human characteristics that have led to the exhaustion of resources and extinction of communities in different parts of the globe over time. This information when put against the Earth with its inherent limits on resources can help students to understand the ways that we live that may lead to the same collapse, but on a far larger scale.”
Christopher Helseth wrote this review Monday, November 14, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“It took me FOREVER to finish this book, and I am glad I did, although I did not always enjoy it. Diamond has a way of drowning you with details on peripheral topics, and then breezing through substantial subjects where you feel like you want to know more. That said, this book is 10,000 times better than Guns, Germs and Steel, which, while based around a fascinating idea, I found unreadable due to the professorial egg-headed tone in which it was written. I imagine Diamond as a vastly more engaging professor than author, but Collapse at least struck me as readable. Painful and slow, but readable. And for those who do get through it, thought-provoking too: how can you not devote some serious concern to links between the environment and societal prosperity? If you can read these case studies and maintain the position that the status quo is A-OK and there are no issues to address with our society’s consumption of resources & environmental policies, then there’s probably not much hope for avoiding a Collapse of the kind described, over and over again, in this book. ”
Jenny B wrote this review Friday, October 21, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
