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Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Paperback – December 27, 2005

by Jared Diamond (Author)

2,086 ratings

Book 2 of 3: Civilizations Rise and Fall Series

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A study of the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations, written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, includes coverage of such cultures as the Anasazi, the Maya, and the Viking colony on Greenland, tracing patterns of environmental damage, climate change, poor political choices, and other factors that were pivotal to their demise. Reader's Guide available. Reprint.

Print length

575 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

December 27, 2005
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

5.6 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0143036556
ISBN-13

978-0143036555
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Diamonds most influential gift may be his ability to write about geopolitical and environmental systems in ways that dont just educate and provoke, but entertain."
The Seattle Times

"Extremely persuasive . . . replete with fascinating stories, a treasure trove of historical anecdotes [and] haunting statistics."
The Boston Globe

"Extraordinary in erudition and originality, compelling in [its] ability to relate the digitized pandemonium of the present to the hushed agrarian sunrises of the far past."
The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Jared Diamond is a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. He began his scientific career in physiology and expanded into evolutionary biology and biogeography. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Among Dr. Diamond’s many awards are the National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, Japan's Cosmos Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and the Lewis Thomas Prize honoring the Scientist as Poet, presented by Rockefeller University. He has published more than two hundred articles and his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (December 27, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 575 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143036556
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143036555
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #865,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #700 in Environmental Policy
- #1,433 in General Anthropology
- #1,696 in History of Civilization & Culture

Customer Reviews:
2,086 ratings

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Jared Diamond

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Jared Diamond is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, which was named one of TIME’s best non-fiction books of all time, the number one international bestseller Collapse and most recently The World Until Yesterday. A professor of geography at UCLA and noted polymath, Diamond’s work has been influential in the fields of anthropology, biology, ornithology, ecology and history, among others.

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Top reviews from the United States

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Lessons from the Past:

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2015

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"Collapse" is my third Jared Diamond book and, as before, he does not disappoint. Combining Anthropology, History and Geography with Environmental studies of how humans use, and misuse, Natural Resources, Diamond draws interesting insights into past societies and how their fates can relate to our modern world. To support his conclusions Diamond cites the findings and thoughts of many specialists, past and present, as well as his own field research at various locations around the world. With in depth proses "Collapse" gives the reader plenty of food for thought. Starting with his experiences in modern day Montana, Diamond examines the state's issues with logging, mining, soil erosion, water conservation and wildlife, both native and foreign. The insights by local ranchers, miners, loggers, rural and urban people give you an idea on how Montanans feel about government regulations and laws on those issues. Moving on to past societies the author follows the same scenario. In depth histories of such far flung places as Easter Island, Greenland and Iceland, New Guinea and Japan explains how they may have dealt with the same environmental problems that plague us today. I really enjoyed the Easter Island history and how this isolated speck of land moved from a sub-tropical paradise to a barren, treeless island and what role religion may have played in it's story. Up north the Vikings were facing their own problems when they colonized Greenland. At first they did well but conditions slowly deteriorated and when the Inuit returned, the Norse colonist were faced with human competitors as well as environmental challenges. The Anasazi and the Mayans are also looked at, how each society dealt with changing conditions and leaders that failed to address their many problems of population and environment. Changing to modern societies Diamond looks at the Rwandan Genocide, the issues faced by The Dominican Republic and Haiti. China's and Australia's evolving societies and how they are moving into today's world. With all this background Diamond discuses his conclusions and poses questions like; Why do some societies make the wrong decisions? What role do Big Business and the environment play in our future survival? The chapter on Big Business is especially enlightening with segments on Oil and Mining Companies, the Logging and Seafood Industry and how these vital businesses effect our future, for good or ill. Lastly he poses the question of what, if anything, can we learn from past societies's successes and failures. This is a great book, one that covers a lot of issues and gives both sides of the story. Jared Diamond is one of the best writers of science and history. He consistently takes me into new realms of wonder with interesting topics and unique insights. While I experienced no down loading problems with this Kindle edition is did notice a couple of "quality control" issues. Through out the book there were several places where punctuation's were left out and in the chapter on the Vikings in Greenland; the word "fjord" was replaced with "3ord". In neither case was the problem bad enough so that I couldn't follow the text, nonetheless it showed a certain lack of that quality control by the publisher. Regardless, this is a book well worth reading and I'm glad to have it on my Kindle.

Last Ranger

77 people found this helpful

Busy Guy in Peachtree City

What lessons from the fall of civilizations might we apply to our civilization?

Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2018

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Why did ancient civilizations (Anasazi, Easter Island, Maya, the Norse colonies on Greenland and North America, and others) fail? Why was Iceland nearly denuded of vegetation? Why does it appear that the Bitterroot Valley in Montana, USA, is "in trouble"? Diamond presents descriptions and explanations in the framework of science and reason, applying archaeology, anthropology, palynology, and other sciences including dating by tree rings and carbon decay. In some cases (Iceland) factors unknown to settlers were largely instrumental. In some cases, it appears that bad decisions by leaders and the population, itself, were instrumental. What lessons can we learn? If you are younger than 20 or have children or grandchildren, you owe it to yourself or them to read and understand this book.

26 people found this helpful

Maybe Even Better....

Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2020

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Not too long ago I interviewed someone for a teaching position at the high school level. She has a PhD in a pretty arcane field and has held prestigious academic positions in a very highly respected university. I asked her to name an author that she thought significantly affected what she brought to her classroom. I expected her to talk about someone I had never heard of that I'd want to go out and buy, and she did, eventually. But she started with hardly a moment's hesitation talking about how Jared Diamond not only taught her content, but served as a role model for how one can take a complex idea and make it accessible to people who don't walk around with doctorates (her students.) --She got the job.
In the process, she nailed what distinguishes Diamond from so many other popular authors. No one grasps and coveys a sweeping vision not only of our past, but our present better than he does. For my money, Collapse is a more important book than GG&S. I used to teach an upper level course that combined Earth Science, History and Government. I assigned parts of this book then, but were I to teach it again, I would require students to read it in its entirety before the course began.

12 people found this helpful

Quit while your ahead

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2018

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GG&S and 3rd Chimp were incredibly researched insightful well presented information and explanation of human beings. In collapse, he goes too far using a few examples of failed societies like Somalia to promote his opinion on environmentalism in conservation excetera. Where is his explanation of why and how the Roman Empire failed?

21 people found this helpful

John A. Jaksich

Outstanding Read-- Thought Provoking

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2018

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While the world seems to be headed to path , at times, unsustainable --we get impression that Jared Diamond knew about it ahead of time. Diamond skillfully analyses past instances lost civilizations. Although some may argue that the doom and gloom approach isn't necessary -- Diamond lets the reader understand how the past could be avoided in our present pre-crisis stage.

While it is accurate to say that the world does respond to extreme crisis--slowly if almost imperceptible at times. Diamond does give reasons for hope. Although he does not explicitly state it-- Diamond believes not so much that we will exercise our own freewill to avert crisis -- he believes we will respond if by either heeding his warning or responding to the first catastrophe that is slated to within our children's lifetimes. Cynical as it may sound -- there are some limits to growth. We are the main limits to our own growth. What I can say

14 people found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Andrew Ravensdale

Middle of the Road

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 28, 2017

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Jared Diamond is a scientist and academic. He has also been a senior official in the environmental movement. Diamond is a trained biologist who became an ornithographer and finally a geographer. He has been US regional director of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Collapse is based on science, but not on Diamond’s original research. Like some of Diamond’s other popular books, such as Guns, Germs and Steel, it is a form of intelligent popularisation; what the French sometimes call haute vulgarisation.
Collapse is one of the popular classics of environmentalism. It should perhaps be read in conjunction Tainter’s remorselessly logical The Collapse of Complex Societies.
Diamond is an optimist. He accepts completely that environmental issues are ‘serious and in need of addressing’. He does not however think that human extinction or an apocalyptic collapse of human civilisation is likely. He sees the future, if we do not address the problems we are facing, as one of ‘significantly lower living standards, chronically higher risks, and the undermining of what we now consider some of our key values’. Bad enough.
Collapse is based on case studies. That is both its strength and – as I shall point out in my conclusion to this review – its weakness.
Some of the case studies are of countries or regions that Diamond knows well. He has for instance known the Bitterroot Valley of Montana since childhood. He has spent much time in the forests of New Guinea watching birds and knows Australia well. He has tramped the Norse archaeological sites in Greenland, and has visited Iceland and Easter Island. In all cases he has made himself thoroughly familiar with the literature. Rather than cluttering the text with footnotes, Diamond has provided a detailed list of further reading at the end of the book. It is what the French call a bibliographie raisonnée.
From this brief and partial list it will be clear that not all the societies which Diamond deals with have in fact collapsed to date. Diamond includes a number of well-known classic cases of collapse from the past. I have mentioned Easter Island and Norse Greenland. The latter is a case which obviously fascinates Diamond, and he devotes a great deal of space to it. He also deals with the Anasazi of the American Southwest, the lowland Maya of the Classic period, and two modern examples of societies which have not been allowed to collapse: Ruanda, where a Tutsi-led rebel army prevented a final meltdown, and Haiti, where the United Nations intervened.
Australia, of course, has not collapsed and neither has China, another of Diamond’s cases. They both however face severe challenges. Diamond also deals with two examples of societies, Tokugawa Japan and the Pacific island of Tikopia, which dealt successfully with environmental challenges.
Diamond does not believe that any society collapses solely for environmental reasons. Diamond believes, I think absolutely reasonably, that ‘A society’s responses [to its environmental problems] depend on its political, economic and social institutions and on its cultural values’. Diamond gives a particularly interesting example of the Greenland Norse, whose collective self-identification as European Christians prevented them from ‘becoming Inuit’, their best chance of survival.
The book is rich in detail. Although I read it several years ago, I had forgotten quite a lot. I had forgotten, for example, that Iceland – because of the application by the original Norse settlers of European farming techniques to light volcanic soils – has the most degraded environment in Europe. I had also forgotten in how many cases – the Anasazi, the Maya, Easter, Pitcairn and Henderson islands in the Pacific – cannibalism can play a role in collapse. In both cases the facts don’t fit my prejudices. That is something I think for me to bear in mind when I am dealing with this kind of material.
Diamond’s treatment of his cases is very full. It is much fuller, for example, than the newspaper or magazine features from which most of us get our information. One of the results of this detailed treatment is to help us realise just how environmentally challenged a modern society that is apparently functioning perfectly well can be. In Montana, for example, the traditional, environmentally damaging industries have declined. They have however left a legacy, which can be very expensive. There are twenty thousand abandoned mines, for example, which have left toxic wastes and in many cases have contaminated the water table. In many case there are no surviving owners, which leaves the state and the federal government arguing about who should pay the very heavy costs of clear-up.
Another example of a challenged society which most of us would think is healthy is Australia, where an over-commitment to English cultural models led to serious environmental degradation caused in particular by sheep-raising. Diamond details the decline of the towns, the flight to the cities and the costs of maintaining an uneconomical agricultural sector.
Diamond’s analysis is also capable of correcting misapprehensions about the collapse of some societies. In the case of Ruanda, for example, Diamond challenges the common Western prejudice that the massacres were a direct and simple result of ethnic tension. He shows that the tensions were to a large extent the legacy of interference by Belgium, the colonial power, and manipulation by various groups of politicians. More importantly, he shows that before the massacres over-population had led to an excessive subdivision of farms leading to non-viable land holdings and a breakdown of community in rural areas.
Two of Diamond’s most interesting cases are Tokugawa Japan and the island of Tikopia. In Japan the Shoguns realised the dangers of deforestation, and set up an elaborate range of measures to combat it. These were successful. On Tikopia the islanders realised the environmental threat. They killed all their pigs, and took measures – some of them drastic, by our standards - to prevent the population rising beyond a viable level.
One solution was top-down, the other was bottom-up, which is the point Diamond wants to illustrate. It is also interesting that neither society was advanced, in our sense, or industrial.
Diamond’s approach makes it clear that the causes of collapse or of an environmental threat are specific, and that many threats have to be dealt with locally, in their context. He shows, with a suitably guarded optimism, that it can be done.
Where Diamond’s approach is weaker is in dealing with global threats: climate disruption, the pollution of the oceans, the loss of the rainforests, the wetlands and the coral reefs, the disappearance of topsoil, the pollution of freshwater. The technical solutions are well understood. What is difficult is the need for international cooperation.
I do not think we are very good at that.

50 people found this helpful

Honey Badger

Just read it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 31, 2019

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This is an important book. Although written in the 1970s (I think), it still holds good today. Very easy reading despite its subject matter, full of really interesting and often surprising information,. The examples of the problems posed by location and environment on societies and how different patterns of behaviour or circumstances can affect that society's chances of success or survival will undoubtedly evoke comparisons with modern-day societies. The environmental message certainly comes across loud and clear, and includes warnings that are relevant to us and future generations that we really can't afford to ignore.

3 people found this helpful

Graffico

Really good read especially during these times 😃👍

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 17, 2020

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This book is in my opinion total excellence you can really see a trend and how certain patterns fall when Societies collapse.

Rich Dad Poor Dad author recommended I read this book and I am glad I did as America is slowly collapsing.

This book will give the reader a historical and detailed breakdown as to how societies collapse.

Its only one slight hindrance is that it does not focus on what is going on at present I feel thats because of when the book was published.

One person found this helpful

Daniela. G.

This is the shocking truth that more people should know

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 26, 2013

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I must admit that this was very uncomfortable reading and the more I read the worse I felt. Diamond identifies five factors that contribute to collapse: climate change, hostile neighbors, collapse of essential trading partners, environmental problems, and failure to adapt to environmental issues. Add to this the dramatic problem of overpopulation (as in Easter Island) and the result is impending disaster.

What I found most intriguing is part two (of four) dedicated to the description of how some past societes collapsed. Some of these descriptions are heart-breaking, especially when Diamon goes into details and mentions the discovery of the skeletons of some last survivers who dies of starvation afetr having destroyed their own habitat. Part four tries to gives some hope, but after hours of gloomy reading I must confess it did little to improve my mood.

Still, this should be compulsory reading. Definitely recommended.

11 people found this helpful

Maggie W

Worth reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2019

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It’s is one of those books that its content stays with you for years. I really enjoyed it and definitely would recommend reading it.
I bought it in used condition that came on time and as described.

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