Highly educational but disappointingly pessimistic.
608 pages, ★★★
Author Jared Diamond is a genius. His books are so crammed with information that one reviewer humorously remarked:
“Jared Diamond” is suspected of actually being the pseudonym for a committee of experts.
I like to read his books slowly to catch his every last detail and jot it down. That, plus the university assignments I’ve been writing recently, explain why I’ve been slow to review books in the last month. I only did six in May!
I have more time to review books now, and I’ve even started reviewing fantasy novels on another blog. They’ll all be reposted here, too. The first and second fantasy reviews I wrote are already online on this blog.
Collapse complements Guns, Germs and Steel very well. Guns, Germs and Steel documents the rise of civilisations and explains their strengths. Why did Europe suddenly grow strong? Why did China stop developing? Why did Africa not colonise overseas territories, whereas many European countries did?
For the most part, Collapse discusses the rise, maintenance and fall of the following societies:
- Montana
- Easter Island
- (3 islands)
- Anasazi
- Maya
- Vikings
- Greenland
- Norse
- (3 more islands and Japan)
- Haiti/Dominican Republic comparison
- Rwanda (just the ‘fall’ in this case)
Each story is fascinating and full of repeatable facts. Each chapter begins with Jared Diamond arriving on scene by aeroplane, describing his birds-eye view of the landscape and his first impressions of the country. Little emphasis is placed on the collapse of these societies—these chapters are more like comprehensive, condensed histories than a series of tragic endings. I enjoyed reading these chapters.
Chapters 12 and 13 are the most interesting. They attempt to explain the ongoing successes of China and Australia. I’m familiar with both countries and didn’t learn much here, but an outsider would find these chapters valuable resources. Both chapters are extremely fact-dense and concise.
Jared Diamond then describes four factors that spell a civilisation’s demise:
- Environmental degradation;
- Not being aware of environmental degradation;
- Doing nothing about environmental degradation;
- Short-term outlook (he calls it, ISEP, which stands for, “it’s someone else’s problem”).
The book becomes increasingly negative from this point on.
The ending to Collapse paints a very grim view of basically all human activity. Take this phrase, for example, from chapter 15, titled, “Roadmap to Failure”: “…we face a future with which we are unhappy, beset by more chronic terrorism, wars, disease outbreaks…”
…He’s wrong! Unhappiness, terrorism, war and disease outbreaks have all declined massively in the last 100 years. Collapse is for the most part a highly scientific book, but he overlooked the statistics at the end and concluded with negative, speculative spin. Chapter 15 sounds like it was written by the anti-consumerist warlord Naomi Klein. (Another book on my reading list, Questioning Collapse, attempts to address this issue.)
Just like the societies it describes, this book rose, maintained itself well, but collapsed tragically at the end. It’s needlessly negative. Read it, but don’t take its conclusions to heart. I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading purely to learn. ★★★
James Kennedy 