Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised EditionIn Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some found solutions and persisted. As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe, and weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Collapse moves from the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland. Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways. Despite our own society’s apparently inexhaustible wealth and unrivaled political power, ominous warning signs have begun to emerge even in ecologically robust areas like Montana. Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: How can our world best avoid committing ecological suicide? |
Contents
MODERN MONTANA | 25 |
PAST SOCIETIES | 77 |
The Last People Alive Pitcairn and Henderson Islands | 120 |
The Ancient Ones The Anasazi and Their Neighbors | 136 |
The Maya Collapses | 157 |
The Viking Prelude and Fugues | 178 |
Norse Greenlands Flowering | 211 |
Norse Greenlands End | 248 |
China Lurching Giant | 358 |
Mining Australia | 378 |
PRACTICAL LESSONS | 417 |
Big Businesses and the Environment | 441 |
The World as a Polder What Does It All Mean | 486 |
Angkors Rise and Fall | 526 |
Acknowledgments | 540 |
| 575 | |
Opposite Paths to Success | 277 |
MODERN SOCIETIES | 309 |
One Island Two Peoples Two Histories | 329 |
Illustration Credits | 590 |
Other editions - View all
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition Jared Diamond Limited preview - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
agriculture American Anasazi Angkor animals archaeological archaeologists Australia became Bitterroot Bitterroot Valley bones cause century Chaco Canyon Chapter China cities climate change coast collapse colony consumers Copán costs countries cows crops damage decades decline deforestation developed Dominican Republic drought Easter Island economic environment environmental problems European export farmers farms fertility fish fisheries fjords forest Gardar global Greenland Greenland Norse growing Guinea Haiti Hence Henderson human hunting Hutu Iceland impact increased industry Inuit irrigation Japan Khmer Khmer Empire killed land largest livestock living logging Mangareva Maya middens miles million mining companies modern Montana native Norse North Norway numbers ocean overseas past societies Pitcairn plant Plate Polynesian production rates Ravalli County result River Rwanda seal sheep ships species statues stone survive Third World Tikopia timber tion trade trees Tutsi Valley vegetation Vikings Vinland Western Settlement wood