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What are readers saying about Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed?
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-01-26 09:59:15.
(Language: English)
  
It was ok. I definitely enjoyed the stories of the histories of these ancient cultures, but the book did drag a bit. It seemed for every culture he mentioned that the primary things leading to collapse were deforestation, overpopulation, and an abusing the natural resources. While I'm sure those were major factors, I wouldn't limit a society's collapse to just those things. There are other non-environmental factors that lead to a society's fall. Everything in the book was taken from an environmentalists' perspective.Still overall, it was a decent read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-30 08:51:03.
(Language: English)
I loved that he took all sorts of societies from the past, the big and the small, and showed what went well and what didn't. Diamond is all about putting things in context, so by the time you read about modern societies.... wow! Full of facts and honest details. Jared Diamond doesn't shy away from the real story, even it means shining a light on ugliness. A bit less academic than his other work. An important read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-02-14 11:57:12.
(Language: English)
Thought provoking and enlightening read. Highly recommended!
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-02-16 01:08:10.
(Language: English)
Very detailed and substantiated analysis of the survival or failure of different societies.The last chapter draws conclusions for our world today.
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Jeff posted a review at 2010-01-25 08:17:35.
(Language: English)
It should be required reading for anyone with responsibility for planning resouce utilization in business or the government.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-16 02:32:09.
(Language: English)
A must-read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-19 08:03:20.
(Language: English)
Would have been just as good with about 200 pages cut out.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-19 01:10:17.
(Language: English)
Excellent source book, a bit heavy though. Clear logic, nicely written, and also a bit scary
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-02-05 06:38:04.
(Language: English)
Intriguing and scary, especially if you have young kids, it makes you wonder what you are doing bringing them into the world. It is hard going and academic in places ut stick with it as it will give you great background information on the environmental prolems we face today, and if like me you live in Scotland, quite grateful for where you live! Hard work to get through at times but worth the effort, even if it leaves you a little without hope!
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-12-09 09:29:38.
(Language: English)
One more book I didn't finish. Also interesting.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-07 08:05:17.
(Language: English)
Not quite as good as his best-known book, "Guns, Germs and Steel", mostly because the first 50 pages are about Montana. Who cares about Montana? I barely even know where it is. But after that it gets wicked awesome. Unfortunately you can't really skip the Montana parts - too many concepts are introduced that you'll need later - but hey, it's Diamond; you can suck it up for 50 pages.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-08-31 07:31:24.
(Language: English)
Diamond lays out a future of America where resources are scarce due to over development and over population. Diamond makes a decent case but fails to account for the economic factors that arise with the depletion of some resources and the availability of newer, more efficient sources.
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Andrew posted a review at 2009-12-20 03:21:53.
(Language: English)
Excellent introduction to the necessity of sustainable development. Taken with Keynsian economics and a sense of geopolitics, this is also an essential contribution to political theory.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-14 10:32:16.
(Language: English)
Terrific assessment of the past and potential future.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-17 08:28:22.
(Language: English)
So far not that great...
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Jonathan posted a review at 2009-11-09 10:30:06.
(Language: English)
Not as profound as Guns, Germs, and Steel but still worth a read. Particularly more interesting from chapters 9-13 regarding modern states... and the of course the warnings in chapter 14+. Will we ever learn from our own history?
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-31 09:29:12.
(Language: English)
Great book exploring how societies collapse or succeed due to environmental and geographical constraints. Whether a society succeeds or fails depends on how it deals with these factors. Diamond goes in great detail examining past societies that have collapsed and those that have succeeded in overcoming the shortcomings of lands that can no longer sustain population expansion or human exploitation. It gives us a glimpse of what may happen to our modern society if we keep on the path that we are heading.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-09 03:05:08.
(Language: English)
Are you sitting around wishing you could read a 500 page book about soil erosion, rat middens, and social collapses? Well look no further than JD's Collapse, an epic book which catalogs the fall of several ancient and modern societies and how each of the collapses were precipitated by severe environmental damage which contributed to the downfall. It's a great book but definately not for the faint of heart.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-12-01 09:29:31.
(Language: English)
All the case studies were great, but the last few chapters were pretty pointless. They could have been condensed into 1.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-25 10:17:22.
(Language: English)
Lessons from history. The author explains thought provoking lessons from human history in a very easy to understand manner. Not very different from Guns, Germs and Steel. The book tends to get pedantic at time.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-10 09:19:15.
(Language: English)
After reading "Guns, Germs & Steel", tis book was a must-read for me. Diamond's dispassionate observation of the recurring foolishness (and occasional wisdom) of human societies in relation to their ecology was fascinating.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-17 01:14:40.
(Language: English)
I felt Jared Diamond came off as patronizing the public at points and this book can get very depressing with it's overwhelming message about environmental destruction and failure to conserve. At the same time this book increased my interest in the conditions that will be faced by our generation in the near future and gave me some optimism that change for the better can occur. The first chapter about Montana was particularly difficult for me to navigate, but once the history lessons begin the book is a much easier read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-10 01:51:15.
(Language: English)
Really level headed look at some examples of societies which have failed to survive, usually because they drew more from their environment than it could sustain. Not at all predictable in its conclusions: there's a chapter on how responsible oil development in Indonesia has actually worked to preserve forest bird species by preventing hunting around its sites.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-30 09:54:42.
(Language: English)
So like Diamond's other book, Guns Germs and Steel, this is another very long detailed exploration into how various societies have been an active participant in their own demise. The biggest factor that Diamond discusses is their reckless use/abuse of their fragile environments.It also turns out that the Greenland Vikings starved even though they were surrounded by giant fjords of fish!
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