BOOK REVIEW

Book Review: Jared Diamond "COLLAPSE: HOW SOCIETIES CHOOSE TO FAIL OR TO SUCCEED".


In his book COLLAPSE: HOW SOCIETIES CHOOSE TO FAIL OR TO SUCCEED Jared Diamond examines why ancient societies, like the Anasazi of the American South West, the Viking Colonies of Greenland, the Polynesian society of the Eastern Islands or the Maya Civilization have collapsed and draws parallels to modern societies such as the ones in Rwanda or Haiti and the Dominican Republic. According to his exposition not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, particularly when combined with society's response to (or disregard for) the coming disaster. On the one hand, the author makes clear that this cannot be the mere case of an environmentalist's condemnation, in fact giving also examples of how environmental concerns are tackled successfully to the profit of all sides (such as the oil fields in Papua New Guinea exploited by Chevron). On the other hand, he makes it plain, why societies sometimes are not willing (or cannot be willing) to face the problems.

He begins by setting the book's main question in the small communities of present-day Montana, where they have to face a decline in living standards and a depletion of natural ressources and goes on to deal with issues like the leak of toxins into the soil, logging, wildfires etc. among others in the course of his argumentation. Diamond provides good and well-reasoned historical and current examples, making the case that many times economic and environmental concerns are one and the same.

I found this book most interesting because the author's explanations and arguments are very convincing and the issues he deals with in his book are of vital importance for the survival of our planet in a way that it might be worthwhile living on it. Moreover, it provides a lot of interesting vocabulary of very different areas, may it be geographical, historical, biological, economical etc.. To cut a long story short: this book is highly recommendable
Mariette Lebrun, 10.30. am