Collapse

How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. From the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel , Jared Diamond.

What's more frightening than the specter of a civilization's collapse? The remains of the abandoned temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Mayan cities overrun by the jungle, or the somber vigil of the statues on Easter Island? The image of these ruins begs the question: Could this happen to us too?

In Collapse, Diamond examines the other side of the coin: what caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse and what we can learn from it.

As in his previous work, Guns, Germs, and Steel , Diamond weaves a comprehensive global thesis through a series of fascinating historical and cultural narratives. Ranging from the prehistoric Polynesian culture of Easter Island to the once-flourishing Native American civilizations of the Anasazi and Mayans, the author analyzes the causes of the decline of the medieval Viking colony in Greenland and continues on to the modern world. In doing so, he paints a catastrophic picture and shows what happens when we waste our resources, ignore the signals of our environment, reproduce too quickly, or cut down too much trees. Environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, unstable trading partners, and pressure from enemies were factors in the downfall of some societies, yet others found solutions to these same problems and survived.

What makes one environment more fragile than another? Why do some societies, and not others, resort to self-destruction? Similar problems threaten us today and have already led to disasters in Rwanda and Haiti, while China and Australia are trying to respond to these challenges in innovative ways. Despite our society's seemingly inexhaustible wealth and unparalleled political power, warning signs are beginning to emerge in ecologically healthy areas, such as the valleys of Montana in the United States. What economic, social, and political choices can we still make to avoid the same fate?

Broad in scope, clear in tone, and powerful in style, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: What can we do to prevent the destruction of our world?