Collapse Audiobook By Jared Diamond cover art

Collapse

How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

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Collapse

By: Jared Diamond
Narrated by: Michael Prichard
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In his million-copy bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now in this brilliant companion volume, Diamond probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates?

As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Moving 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, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe. Environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of these societies, but other societies found solutions and persisted. 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?

Look out for Jared Diamond's latest book, The World Until Yesterday, coming from Viking in January 2013.

 Social Sciences Thought-Provoking Ecosystem World Civilization Anthropology Politics & Government Future Studies China Africa

Critic reviews

"Mr. Diamond...is a lucid writer with an ability to make arcane scientific concepts readiily accesible to the lay reader, and his case studies of failed cultures are never less than compelling." —The New York Times

"...Collapse is a magisterial effort packed with insight and written with clarity and enthusiasm." —Businessweek

"Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse represent one of the most significant projects embarked upon by any intellectual of our generation. They are magnificent books: extraordinary in erudition and originality, compelling in their ability to relate the digitized pandemonium of the present to the hushed agrarian sunrises of the far past. I read both thinking what literature might be like if every author knew so much, wrote so clearly and formed arguments with such care." —Gregg Easterbrook, The New York Times Book Review
Comprehensive Research • Fascinating Historical Examples • Clear Narration • Thought-provoking Analysis • Consistent Accent

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Will get the paper version instead. Diamond has a brilliant offering here. Will get the book.

Narrator made this hard to follow.

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This is book is especially deep. It allows you to get a deep understanding of the world. I'm very satisfied with this book and it has become my favorite book that I have read. I would recommend this Audio from audible as well, to read along as you read. This book is great for anyone willing to input your time and energy into reading it. By the way I'm sixteen, so this book can be read by teenagers with great interest. Don't limit yourself. READ THIS BOOK.

This book is very eye opening and understandable.

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This book provides a very compelling wake-up call about the several threats to majority of mankind, beyond just rising temperatures.

Very Compelling Case

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Great book, and great narrator. I liked Collapse better than Guns Germs and Steel. I think Diamond had some very convincing arguments in Collapse and the topic of societal collapse by environmental degradation and resource depletion is more relevant to the modern reader. Great book, I've read it twice now. Bravo to the narrator, really enjoyed listening to him.

Tim

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I appreciate how thorough and in depth the author goes through why ancient civilizations have failed. Then going on to draw parallels to the modern world. Has given me much to think about. Loved it.

Its very good

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