Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
Thursday, August 20th, 2009 | Book Review
In his previous book ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ Jared Diamond analyzes the reasons behind the variability in the rate of growth among different human societies. Similar to aforementioned book, the author uses the comparative method to dissect the causes behind the collapse of human societies. Author states the dilemma in the first chapter by utilizing the problems that current day Montanans are facing. He describes the changing mix of the residents and how Montana’s natural sources are depleting so quickly. Several other cases are presented throughout the book to illustrate how societies thrived or collapsed based on their strategies to manage their natural resources.
Diamond focuses on the big picture and attempts to explain how individual decisions can impact the destiny of the whole society in broad brush strokes. At the end of the book, a chapter is dedicated to suggestions that might improve the current state of our society. Although the book is a little long and repetitive at certain points, I recommend this book.