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Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive - Community Reviews back

by Jared Diamond
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Ecletic Reader
Ecletic Reader rated it 11 years ago
Very informative. I believe that the information in this book is laid out in a very easy to read narrative format. It was very interesting and provided an interesting look into the recurrent problems that societies have faced when trying to live outside the means of their environment.
Wyvernfriend Reads
Wyvernfriend Reads rated it 12 years ago
Interesting and thought causing. This goes through a few societies and how they failed to survive. It's an interesting look at these and how they're reflected in modern society. They're things to think about and ideas on how to move from here. I found it riveting.
Just reading
Just reading rated it 12 years ago
I liked this book and I really enjoyed "Guns Germs and Steel" so I really hoped for "Collapse" to be another new intriguing work that would challenge people to think in a new way about existing problems. This book is just so long though. Clearly it is well-researched and Diamond knows what he is t...
magikspells
magikspells rated it 12 years ago
So this book has been lurking in my current reads forever now because of the slow pace of reading it for class. I didn't hate this book, I felt like it went by at a reasonable pace and that the arguments had their validity at times. But as is the case with [b:Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Hum...
nouveau
nouveau rated it 12 years ago
after the runaway bestseller [b:Guns Germs and Steel|1842|Guns, Germs, and Steel The Fates of Human Societies|Jared Diamond|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1158959888s/1842.jpg|2138852], one hopes for another epic, history-sweeping, all-of-known-knowledge-science-and-arts-sweeping giganta-work, but in...
Cassandra Reads
Cassandra Reads rated it 13 years ago
This book contained too much information to even ry to summarize in a review, so I'm not even going to try. Instead, I have very little to say about this book overall. My favorite chapters had to be the one's about the past socities (mostly, no doubt, due to my love of history). I was surprised to n...
The Drift Of Things
The Drift Of Things rated it 13 years ago
I listened to the abridged audio version of this book. Some of the discs were damaged, and I have no idea what I missed, so I won't rate the book. I wanted to listen to the full-length audio version, but I can't stand that reader's style. You'd have to put a firecracker up his nose to get him to put...
riley
riley rated it 14 years ago
Not quite the absolute must read that GGS was. The one drawback with this book is that he is predicting, rather than looking in to the past, which gives his arguments slightly less weight. That's not to say it isn't valuable, or convincing for that matter, but GGS is, in my opinion, an absolute cl...
Dilettante
Dilettante rated it 15 years ago
This isn't quite as engrossing as guns, germs, and steel is, despite the fact that it's about the apocalypse of many a historical society. (Easter Island, the Vikings in Greenland.)I'd skip past the initial chapter about the mining industry in Montana, so you can get into the book, but make sure yo...
AC
AC rated it 15 years ago
Though I am sympathetic, I found this book to be somewhat less original than Guns; the examples, dealing with small societies, are not (as the author allows) necessarily illustrative of our complex society -- which, admittedly, may be *more* fragile..., as a result of its complexity... as Niall Ferg...
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