I read this book over six weeks from February through March 2006. It took a lot of effort but was excellent. It is filled with excellent observations on different societies and why they failed or excelled. Much of his observations were new to me but were well documented and reasonable. In addition, to information on various societies was an introduction to various field methods of study that were amazing. So, he shows what is the current research into archeology (and all its arcane specialties) but how they provide information on former civilizations.

Easter Island – Why did the society collapse and why did they build those statues. Easter Island is somewhat unique. It is a temperate zone island as opposed to tropical for most Polynesian settle areas. Second, it was much farther away from other Polynesian islands. Diamond’s hypothesis on Easter Island’s demise is deforestation. He sites two interesting studies – pollen studies from soil samples and second checking charcoal ashes from garbage heaps. They both show a decline in large palm trees. Even more interesting is the loss of a species of Giant Palm and then the loses of other types of palm. The tree lose also meant they lost transportation as the Giant Palms were used to make the ocean going canoes. Also, the moia sites show increased activity as the resources were being depleted and then signs of warfare and the societies collapse.
Easter island more than other locations was more fragile because it was dry, temperate, and isolated.

Anasazi - This area of the southwest has been repeated settled and then collapse. Basically, this is very marginal area to live (it’s a desert). It gets wetter for 50-100 years and new people settle the area, deplete the resources (soil), population increases, and then it gets dry and everyone kills each other or moves on. Diamond’s point is that it is multiple factors that cause their collapse and not to focus on the last war or migration but the underlying environmental issues causing the crises. Chaco Canyon was probably the most advanced site. Again, the main cause of collapse was deforestation. Here, the biologist studied the crystallized urine pellets of packrats to see how the fauna had changed – Amazing. Packrats have been living in the area for 40K years. They found that this area used to be moderately forested with Pinyon pines. An example of impending collapse – remains of headless mice in the human preserved dry feces suggesting people were catching and eating mice whole. Also, the latest construction (based on tree ring studies) is defensive walls and gates. Finally, limited portable objects (pottery, knives) are left at the site, so the majority probably migrated.


Maya – Here is again an area where few modern people live, yet there were hundreds of thousands of people in an advanced Society at one point. Mayan were limited by several factors (from Guns, Germs, and Steel) – poor crops only corn, not wheat or barley and few domestic animals. The suspect cause of collapse here is soil fertility. This area has poor soils and Mayan’s had limited crop options. They first farmed the valleys and then the hills. Once they removed the trees from the hills, the hill sides eroded, leaving even less farmable land. Evidence is based on the decline of nutrition based on reviewing the skeletons by age. Second, by pollen studies that show loss of native trees and replacement by crop pollen. After a city collapse, increases in native tree pollen. The other factor was long term climate change in rain fall. From 5500 bc to 500B.C is relatively wet. Then it cycles every 100 or so years. This was determined by studying the isotopes of Oxygen in the lake bed sediment. In dry years, there is more evaporation and a different ratio of Isotopes (lighter isotopes evaporate faster).

Vikings – There were several Viking colonies of variable success. The most remote and quickest to fail was vineland (Canada). Basically, the native Americans were able to push the Vikings out. Since this was the farthest away, there was no way to send a large force of technologically superior Vikings (Vikings had iron). Greenland was the next farthest and Diamond spends two chapters on them. They lasted for about 400 years before Collapsing. He argues for multiple factors – first, loss of contact with the homeland and trade. In the late 1400s, Norway had a new king and internal issues that reduced shipping from 4 ships a year to one every decade. The other cause of reduced shipping was the crusades open up Africa Ivory trade which decrease need for Greenlands major export crop of Walrus Ivory. Archeologists found less and less iron in construction and iron tools. Knives are sharpened to the nub. Further, Greenland has no large trees for shipbuilding. All ships had to come from Europe. Second, climate change made it colder. This is marginal area for farming, so decreased growing season is critical. Third, was not adapting from home country ideals. They kept cows as a status item which required tremendous pasture and hay production. Goats would be better in this marginal land. Fourth, soil loss. Cattle and hay production reduce the fertility of the soil. The final stroke was the expansion of the Inuit into Greenland. Inuit were able to harvest whales and other fauna not used by the Norse. Inuit were probably able to overrun the few remain survivors as the survivors had no advantages in Iron.
In Iceland, the norse survived. They were closer to Norway to be able to be resupplied. However, it is not sustainable. Iceland has had complete forest removal and is not bare as the moon in many areas.

Voy a ir al grano y sin anestesia: A menos que usted esté haciendo una investigación técnica o asistiendo al curso del autor en la UCLA, no debería leer este libro.

No les voy a hacer lo que Jared Diamond me hizo a mi: Me obligó a leer casi 700 páginas de datos, tecnicismos, términos complejos, relatos bastante densos antes de entregarme "el curibito" del libro. El quid del asunto. Yo lo voy a relatar en unos cortos párrafos.

Todos los que han leído al bien respetado Diamond saben que es un gran narrador de historias y Colapso no fue la excepción. La narración es impecable, entretenida y con todo el rigor científico (creo yo, que no soy científico) que merece una empresa como escribir este libro. Entonces el tema no es la narrativa, sino la extensión técnica de los detalles que a mi modo de ver, para un libro divulgativo debió ser más económica.

Llegando al final, tan anhelado después de una maratón de lectura de casi un mes Diamond deja entrever sus apuntes finales, conclusiones y recomendaciones para las sociedades modernas. Aunque leí el libro 15 años después de su publicación, este autor es muy pertinente en sus apreciaciones, casi todas ellas muy contemporáneas y apegadas con fuerza al discurso mundial actual sobre el cambio climático, el consumo de los recursos tan acelerado, la crisis energética, entre otros asuntos de gran interés por nuestros días.

Es un libro que te tocará tu fibra de conservación del medio ambiente, del consumo responsable y de las decisiones diarias. Te pondrá en el centro del problema y te relatará las opciones que como "consumidor" deberías tomar para proteger nuestro debilitado planeta.

Dado el timing con que leí el libro, también me parece valioso resaltar la transformación de China que le resultará evidente al comparar lo que se conoce hoy del gigante asiático vs. lo que hace 15 años eran apenas perspectivas de un gran cambio. Entre otros ejemplos de sociedades antiguas y modernas, exitosas y colapsadas termina Colapso siendo uno de esos libros que no quise haber empezado pero que me enorgullece haber terminado.

As usual, very informative, I enjoyed listening to the audiobook while I read the ebook. This book was published originally in 2005, so a lot of this information has been disseminated and accepted wisdom for years. Not the author’s fault, but my own for letting this languish on my nonfiction TBR list for so long! I definitely want to read the third of the trilogy as soon as possible. I enjoy the author’s expertise and style, but I am no expert, more of an armchair science nerd.

I was mostly engrossed and read closely the first half of the book, about ancient societies that have collapsed. I enjoy well-written and researched history and popular science, and this definitely fits the bill for me. In the last quarter of the book, as Diamond covers big business and their role in environmental problems, and what’s happening in “modern” society – modern being the early 2000s when this book was written - I found myself skimming. So much has happened in the last 10 years or so, not the least of which being the Covid pandemic, which has caused grave concern about our ability to handle big problems.

I found his description of what he says are the 12 intertwined biggest modern issues to be dealt with in determining whether we collapse most disturbing. He says all 12 areas are interrelated, and must be resolved within next 50 years, but we don’t know if they’ll be “…resolved in pleasant ways of our own choice, or in unpleasant ways not of our choice, such as warfare, genocide, starvation, disease epidemics, and collapses of societies.” (p. 498) Yikes!

In the years since publication, so much he predicted has come to pass, it feels like we are already there - and at least here in the USA, it feels like political gridlock and polarization make good decision-making unlikely. I wish I could feel his cautious optimism, but he seems to feel like grassroots pressure on our elected officials could bring about positive change and good decisions. But this book was written before the extreme polarization and growing anti-science skepticism of the last several years, I’m not terribly hopeful. I do plan to read his third in the series as soon as possible to try and get his latest ideas.

This book explains reasons why a society may collapse or may succeed. It reviews great Empires that have vanished due to mistakes they made. Jared Diamond based the reasons for collapse on a five point framework.

The first is the environmental damage a country has produced. Many societies had cut down all their trees to build homes, heat homes and build tools. However, they either lacked the knowledge or did not consider to seed new trees to replace the old ones. Tree loss not only caused erosion and with it farm land loss but also left no place for animals to survive which they could hunt for food. Easter Islanders disappeared from history because the people consumed all of its trees. They left us with incredible statues made of red stone that weigh 12 tons but no decedents of those who built it.

Volcanic ash provides nutrients to the soil so societies who had volcanic activity had productive farming while those that did not farmed all the nutrients from the soil and then could not grow anything else. For example Japan’s volcanic activity provided the small island with arable land due to the nutrients in volcanic ash.

The second factor is climate change. The climate has changed over and over throughout history hurting some societies while helping others. Many became either drier, colder, wetter or hotter which the unfortunate people were not prepared to handle. For example, part of the reason the Norse who inhabited Greenland failed was due to sea ice formations preventing shipping trade with Norway.

The third factor is the proximity to hostile neighbors. If a country was not strong enough to hold off a neighbor it would likely be overtaken by them. The example given is the great Roman Empire’s collapse due to Germanic invasions.

The fourth factor is s loss of support from trading partners. Most societies needed goods that other countries could provide. If that support stopped the society may collapse. An example arises today as wealthy European countries rely on third world countries to supply oil to them.

The final factor is how the societies respond to the other four factors. The Inuit people, for example, survived living in Greenland (unlike the Norse) by using little wood. They built Igloos for houses, hunted whales for food and hunted seals to burn their blubber for heat. They also stretched seal skins to make kayaks.
Another example is the past societies of Highland New Guinea, Japan, Tikopia, and Tonga developed successful forestry management programs thus surviving to this day. On the other hand, Easter Island, Mangareva, and Norse Greenland failed to develop forestry management and collapsed as a result.

Fortunately Mr. Diamond sees that many countries today have rectified mistakes of the past so our humanity still has a chance to prosper well into the future.

The Pulitzer-prize winning "Guns, Germs and Steel" by this dude forever changed the way I look at history. And believe me, I am a history buff of sorts so this means a lot. Unfortunately, "Collapse" fails to measure up to that classic.

The real problem with Collapse isn't the research that goes into the thesis, or even the soundness of the thesis itself (though there are some qualms I have about how politically unstable Mongolia is or basing his analysis of cod fisheries on a single popular accunt). The central contention, that population explosion, interdependency, unsustainable harvest, adverse cultural values, and about 8 other factors contributed to a society's collapse, is innocuous enough, though admittedly somewhat vague. Rather, the problem is that Diamond is so intent upon clearly and explicitly detailing every freaking argument to paint a convincing picture of the ancient/medieval societies or the current polluting industries that he often loses sight of his larger arguments. For instance, his discussion of Viking Greenland v. Iceland is insightful but whether it warrants nearly 100 pages in a 500 page book I doubt. The same could be said of his discussion of modern Australia; China, in contrast, gets really short shrift. He goes at pain to explicate the archaeological evidence by which we understand the Anasazi collapse, but here too he gets a little repetitive and locquacious. For instance, the logic behind dendrochronolgy and salinization were explained more than once to elucidate yet another nuance. Indeed, here Diamond the scientist persistently gets in the way of Diamond the popular writer. Were it not for his stellar writing skills this would have been even more of a chore to read.

Apart from the lack of effective editing, Collapse suffers from Diamond's penchant to almost bend over backward to point out that he is not engaged in a crude form of "Environmental determinism" whereby the significance of cultural and political events are misleadingly downplayed. He certainly didn't do this in Guns Germs and Steel but many people, including the NY Times, accuse him of it. Nevertheless Diamond was sufficiently sensitive to this interpretation (as well as eager to show that we can prevent environmental catastrophe) that he repeats this ad nauseum and, IMHO, belabors this point to being beyond repetitive.

The cumulative effect of all these shortcomings is that the book ends up presenting really rather very little that is new, argues persistently against straw man hypotheses, and is informative but almost in a trivial sense. At 520 odd dense pages this is a lot to ask of a reader, and it is a pity that this simply does not measure up to Diamond's earlier works.

Diamond explores the reasons for societies going through and coming out of crisis, using examples in Chile, Germany, Indonesia, Japan and Finland. Diamond's ability to bring together multiple disciplines and establish common themes amongst countries which experience and overcome crisis is a reflection of his wide-ranging sociological, political, psychological and economic expertise.

Diamond is also able to dissect the often parochially minded politics and outlooks of countries who find themselves squandering their advantages due to the desire to achieve short-term political gains, or how they can be lured into a false sense of security, whether it be due to political naivete, a sense of exceptionalism or a misplaced sense of optimism, into thinking they are not in a crisis and therefore find themselves falling deeper and deeper into a crisis situation which they are never able to work their way out of.

What is most prescient about Diamond's reflections however, are his observations on the increasingly fragile nature of American politics which, in the years following the publication of the book, has found itself teetering on the path towards dictatorship. Overall 'Collapse' is a compelling and well evidence, if somewhat dry, exploration of modern day politics.

I've just completed a second reading of this exemplary book of science writing. It's no joke to say I am doubly impressed.

Jared Diamond shows how careful reasoning can bring understanding while his love of the scientific investigative process pulls the reader into intimate contact with distant places and times that offer lessons for today. While his Guns, Germs and Steel is written in the same close analytical style, Collapse is the book Diamond was born to write.

His method investigates both failure and success to determine their causes. From what is learned our own modern world is surveyed to see what we can expect based on our current practice.

Human intelligence is no guarantee of group survival. People form societies having goals both material and emotional/moral that direct group behavior and that must meet the test of time in how the environment is handled. Being immersed in a society makes it difficult to see what appears to be right and proper at the time objectively. Being alive today gives the necessary psychological distance for us, if we have the skills of the author, to use the tools of science to examine the good moves or blunders of the past as dispassionately as possible. But as Diamond cautions us, we should take into account our removal from the scene before saying of failure, "how could they be so stupid?".

The title of this book attracts attention, but accounts of failure are only a part of what Diamond relates. After all, we are still here. Overall, he is able to propose certain factors, at least some of which come together in any specific situation to determine if a society will survive. A main point of the book is to show the reader how today's huge population and the worldwide interaction of humanity makes specific location beside the point. We are all on the road to success or failure together.

There's enough poignancy and drama for a novel. How is it that a heavily forested island, as Easter Island once was, comes to be barren of trees after humans, who are dependent on those trees, arrive? What are those huge stone heads for (they are actually full bodies with oversize heads) and why were every one of them that had been laboriously set in place deliberately toppled over? Believe it or not, the tools that were used to carve out the figures are still at the excavation sites as if they were suddenly dropped and abandoned. If you are in the least bit curious, this book will not only spark your interest but will satisfy you with the results of often laborious investigations, thousands of hours of work, by specialists in a number of fields.

The reader will be amazed at the techniques that are used to determine what happened long ago based on radio carbon dating or the detailed examination of ancient pollen, but even where objects are found positioned in relation to each other can tell a story. The author carefully but simply and quickly explains how each technique works. Like any good science writer, he wants the reader to know; to be part of an informed public.

Failure can come after an extended period of success. The Maya and the Norse settlers of Greenland continued for hundreds of years before the collapse of their societies in the face of environmental warnings they did not heed. The Norse, at the point of starvation as farming failed them, could directly observe the Inuit successfully fishing in kayaks, yet the Norse, no strangers to water, did not take up fishing. Diamond doesn't duck the obvious question, why?

As mentioned, we are still here and from the grocery store shelves appear to be doing fine, yet a host of issues threaten us and Diamond goes into detail on each. He speaks of himself as a cautious optimist. This book was written in 2006, 12 years ago (2018), so I thought I would investigate some of the issues Diamond mentions to see if things have improved, if measures are being taken to prevent our own planet-wide collapse.

From coral bleaching, world population increase, soil erosion and salinization, ground water depletion, deforestation and on through to CO2 reduction to address global warming I found little ground for optimism; all of these problems continue to increase driven by human demand.

We may not pull through despite knowing what is happening, but we definitely won't if we are ignorant, as is the American president. Collapse addresses that ignorance. It speaks to Santayana's warning that those who can't remember the past (ignorant of it) are doomed to repeat it. There were enough different independent societies at one time to allow for a failure here and there. We can't afford failure now.

Audio book was as dry as a piece of Melba toast after Bar Rush. Impact could have been enhanced with a provocative frame structure. Title feels misleading since ancient cultures didn't know, what they didn't know. Book failed to produce an A-ha Moment. Maybe I'm just jaded about human nature and its approach to environment. Not recommended.

DNF

Oh my lord, I could not possibly with this one. Diamond's writing is just too exhaustive and too dense for me to make much headway. I am interested in these ideas but prefer the summary articles I've read that reference this book much more.

My objections to Collapse are nearly identical to the ones I voiced in my review of Guns, Germs, and Steel. Jared Diamond's thesis that past societal collapses have largely been due to five main factors is a good thesis, and he makes a compelling argument. However, Collapse is poorly written and edited; Diamond reiterates his points so much that it feels somewhat patronizing.

Diamond analyzes the collapse of six past societies: the Easter Islanders, the Pitcairn and Henderson Islanders, the Anasazi, the Mayans, and the Vikings. He then compares these societies to modern societies (both societies that face problems and ones that have solved some problems which previously led to collapses). All of these analyses are very well-thought out, well-presented arguments that support Diamond's overarching thesis (if somewhat belaboured). One of the most useful aspects of these repetitive case studies is how Diamond points out which of his "five factors" influenced each society's collapse. (The five factors, by the way, were: environmental damage, climate change, decrease in interaction with friendly foreigners, increase in hostilities from foreigners, and how the society responds to environmental concerns.) For instance, deforestation played the major role in causing the demise of the Easter Islanders; on the other hand, the Inuit survived in Greenland because they adapted to their environment in a way that the Eurocentric Vikings refused to do. By pointing out these differences, Diamond elevates this book above the typical "well, some societies had problems, so they collapsed" tone of a TV documentary. Each case study is interesting in its own right and well worth further investigation--Diamond provides plenty of suggestions for further reading.

Much of the book is a treatise on the fragility of our biosphere. Diamond attempts to convince us that he's unbiased when it comes to environmental concerns, claiming he is neither pro- nor anti-environment. I doubt that any reader would believe this claim after the first chapter, and certainly no one could accept it after the end of the book. However, while Diamond is pro-environment, he demonstrates that he is not necessarily anti-business. In fact, he spends much of his time trying to show that businesses can and will clean up their act if pressured into doing so or shown how it will benefit them. I approve of this stance, just as I approve of the fact that Diamond carefully avoids "environmental determinism"--i.e., that a society's surroundings totally dictate the fate of a society.

After examining past societies, Diamond looks at modern societies, both what's working and what isn't. He takes an excruciatingly detailed look at Montana, but I don't fault him for this, since it's apparently an area with which he has much experience. Once again, he extols Papua New Guinea as an excellent country full of awesome people--I skimmed that part, having read enough such praise in Guns, Germs, and Steel. I actually found the chapter on modern Australia the most interesting; I hadn't reflected before on the problems, which in hindsight are logical consequences, caused by the colonization of this rugged continent. Collapse is a reminder that even so-called "First World" countries have their share of problems; Diamond's framework is universal rather than restricted only to poor or isolated societies.

The last part of the book concerns what we can do to stem the rising tide of problems that could cause future societal collapses. This is particularly important, since Diamond notes that globalization means a collapse affects the entire world, even if it is localized to a single country or even continent. Diamond throws out some suggestions and also refutes common "lines" supplied by opponents to the call to arms he's taken up. After the rousing chapter on Australia, this part was lacklustre at best. If it weren't for the monotonous emphasis on supporting Diamond's thesis, I would think I was reading a novel with a climax and then a disappointing resolution! To be fair, however, the final chapter was interesting if not entertaining.

I'm more pessimistic than Diamond at this time. Then again, as I write this I'm only 19, much less mature and experienced than most people who ruminate upon these problems, particularly Diamond himself. Unfortunately, I've already come to the conclusion that Diamond and others are attempting to communicate now: we cannot continue like this. The Earth cannot support our population with our current methods of managing our resources and the current level of impact we have, as individuals, on the planet. Something's gotta give, and it may just be our quality of life--something we pampered First World citizens are very reluctant to surrender, much less reduce. Diamond finds some hope in the fact that, with better management of our resources, we can sustain both our current population and quality of life while still reducing our impact on the planet itself. It's up to us, the public, to push governments and businesses to take the necessary steps.

Collapse was as interesting an argument as I had hoped, although this comes with the caveat that it's a poorly written book. There are certainly worse ways to spend an afternoon (or in my case, a couple of afternoons), and if you're a fan of Diamond's previous work, you'll find this tolerable. If this is your first Diamond book, I think that Guns, Germs, and Steel was marginally better. However, the subject matter of Collapse is still fascinating, and Diamond does it justice.

One of the most important questions of humanity. Why do human societies fail or succeed? And Jared Diamond proves that he is an incredibly talented writer, as well as one of the main researchers and thinkers that can dare to answer such a question. He takes on an amazing journey through some of the most epic experiences in human civilization. And we do learn how to look at our own time with the perspective of our species' past failures and sucesses.

If you care about the world and the survival of the human race, then you must read this book. Period. Buy it now.

It will teach you more than you ever thought possible in one book. You will look at the world differently. It will expand your mind.

- Lilo
Author of The Light Who Shines

And just to be technically correct, this is not a review. It is a recommendation.