Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed in History is Not Boring

Jun 27, 2007 Grumpus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, science

Originally listened in March of 2005.

This is the 2nd time I've listened to this book. It was my very first audiobook and there was so much interesting info on way past societies collapsed that I found myself thinking about this book again over the last 5 years, that I had to read it again. I won't get into here (already many great reviews) but I remember it being fascinating and found it even more so this time. Originally gave it 3 stars and now I'm uping it 4 stars. ...more

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Oct 09, 2009 Paul rated it really liked it

Still reading this. More than half through. It's heavy stuff. Not as good a book as his previous title, Guns, Germs & Steel, which is even heavier. Diamond is a geologist and more - he explores how past societies survived or 'collapsed' due to decisions they made and how they reacted to environmental change, etc. One of the things you really take away is that environmental change is nothing new. It's more rampant now, but has been been affected humans for millennia (this is not spelled incorrect ...more

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Oct 17, 2020 Matt rated it liked it

Interesting individual essays about various civilizations that collapsed and why the collapsed. I really got the feeling that Mr. Diamond wrote these as stand-alone essays and then when he collected enough, he decided he had enough of a thread to turn them into a book.

Some of the essays are really good (Vikings, Mayans, etc.) Some are overblown and not very authentic (a Californian lecturing on Montana) and some are just lazy (his too-brief discussion of the collapse of the fishing industry.)

I d ...more

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Mar 21, 2008 Pang rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: readactor

It was just too long. I only read 80-85% of the book because it couldn't keep my attention anymore. This book could have been trimmed down to about 300 pages, instead of over 500 pages. He repeated things again and again.

I would have given this book a two-star, but I gave it three because I appreciate his knowledge and his work on the subject. I just wish this book would have been condense version :) ...more

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Dec 04, 2021 Christine rated it liked it · review of another edition

Though this is a really thorough look at some well-known societies that have vanished and the reasons behind that, sometimes it’s a little TOO thorough and it gets wordy and hard to get through. It’s still timely—maybe even more so—15+ years later and it’s interesting to contrast what we know now and what we’ve done differently from Diamond’s advice.

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