A Review of Collapse by Brita Norvold
Rating: 5 Stars (Excellent)
Jared Diamond paints compelling picture in Collapse of the reoccurring themes in the interaction of humans and their environment through scientific research, historical research and his personal expertise. The determining factor in success or failure of societies is based upon how this interaction is played out. Through the examination of examples that cross both history and globe we are offered a view of societies that are similar and different from ours, and the choices that were made that led to eventual collapse. Each example displayed its own unique combination of five underlining factors that resonate throughout the book. By the shaping of environment to meet the growing needs of a society, the decisions chosen may cause unintended consequences.
The repetition of these factors shows the parallel between societies of long to the current trends of today. As many prefer to view people of today as more advanced, through his cases it becomes evident that the same mistakes are being replayed in our modern world and that these unintended consequences are not just the fate of primitive people. With a world that is increasingly becoming globalized, our resources are becoming even more limited and we find ourselves meeting all five of Diamond’s reoccurring factors on a worldwide level.
While the idea of collapse on a global scale is certainly dreadfully gloomy, he rebounds with signs of in our advantage of learning from the mistakes of societies past. Other societies may have failed in adopting sustainable practices, but there is still the possibility for converting over to methods by which can better sustain the environment. The imminent need for change however must be realized. The terms of expansion, growth and progress will need to be redefined from their conventional economical terms.
Nearing the end of the book, Diamond provides an excellent counter for various arguments against progression of sustainable practices. The one-liners well reflect the current atmosphere of this debate. Each rebuttal is an informative concise explanation that expels the notion of going about business as usual. While the majority of the reading points towards a dire future with the continuity of over-consumptive habits and disregard for the natural world, we are left hopeful, anticipating that current societies will learn from the past and make the changes necessary to led us into a more promising future.

Submitted on 8:56 PM on 12/7/07

A Review of Collapse by Steven Drevecky
Rating: 5 Stars (Excellent)
Jared Diamonds novel "Collapse" has been a great read. Jared has done alot of insightful research that had a lasting impacct from the book. The collapse of societies has been a interesting topic in that how we've been able to see the triumphs of societies and see how problems of natural causes ends up leading to an entire population or society missing. I thought China was interesting in how their economy is booming but how the living status of people in China is not at a high standard. Diamonds attention to detail painted a vivid picture of how these societies were at the time or is currently. I do recommend this book for everyone to read. I believe the information is great to know and is something everyone should take in and learn from. History in a sense has been constantly repeating itself in some form or another, America with our numerous triumphs, will natural causes lead to the demise of our society?
Submitted on 6:18 PM on 12/7/07

A Review of Collapse by Jenny Bloor
Rating: 5 Stars (Excellent)
Are you looking for a book that discusses current problems of today? Collapse is a revolutionary book that discusses the hot topics that we hope to change in our world. This book discusses global warming and its major affects, food production (is there enough food for all the people in the world?), oil production (have we almost used up all of the readily available oil?), soil erosion (what is causing this?), deforestation (how can we stop it?), and water deprivation.
Jared Diamond discusses past civilizations. He portrays their strengths and weaknesses and then discusses what caused their fall. In this book you will read about many past civilizations including, Easter Island, the Anasazi, the Norse settlements in Greenland, and the Mayas. Each of these cultures failed because one or a combination of the following, deforestation and habitat destruction, soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses), water management problems, over-hunting, over-fishing, effects of introduced species on native species, human population growth, increased per-capita impact of people. We are facing all of these problems to some degree today. What will make us conquer these problems, or will we fail just like they did?
Jared Diamond has a slightly sadistic approach that makes you start to wonder what a world we will live in when the land is degraded, the groundwater pumped dry, and oil is almost gone. Will we once again become barbaric like the Vikings? What will happen when our bare essentials are gone and no matter how much money you have you can't save yourself, the essentials simply aren't there. This book makes you think about how unsustainable our lifestyles really are. Not only do we have the problems of past civilizations but we also have problems that we have created for ourselves. Some of these problems include, human-caused climate change, buildup of toxic chemicals in the environment, energy shortages, and full human utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity.
I though that this book could have been written better by making in about 200 pages shorter. I felt that Diamond carried on many topics and takes you in many circle. I wonder if a shorter, more concise version of this book would have been more appealing to my eyes. I also found the last section "Reasons for Hope" to not be so hopeful. After reading 525 pages of "doom and gloom" I'd hope for more positives... after all, the book is titled "Collapse." He calls himself a "cautious optimist." Because he believes that there are necessary changes that we must implement now in order to save our world for future generations. However, he believes that if these changes aren't made now and taken seriously we may not make it, just like the past civilizations.

Submitted on 9:13 PM on 12/6/07

A Review of Collapse by Scott Schell
Rating: 5 Stars (Excellent)
Review of Collapse by Jared Diamond

Scott Schell

Overall, I found Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed to be a worthwhile read. Diamond draws connections between a collection of past societies that have failed and our current global society as a whole. Based on past collapses, he determines that there are five criteria that were contributing factors to a society collapsing. Of these five factors, he found that at least one was present in every past collapse and often times there were several observed. The bulk of the text consists of profiles of different societies that have collapsed; Diamond then analyzes them against his five-point checklist. These five criteria become a sort of theme throughout the rest of the book as he briefly compares contemporary society to past failed societies. In all of the societies profiled, there is a bit of an eerie and somewhat overly repetitive theme to all of the failures. I suspect that his lengthy discussion of the many past case studies is intentional and serves as a warning to us through repetition.

My primary criticism of the book, other than Diamonds’ tendency to be a bit verbose at times, is the book contained 525 pages and only 40 are devoted to providing solutions. To Diamonds credit, those final 40 pages are some of his strongest writing in the entire book. Further, his summations of the twelve points that are the most serious environmental problems facing our current global society are very clear and concise.

The overall tone of the book I found to be a bit pessimistic, but Diamond never once makes a claim that modern-day society as a whole will indeed collapse. Instead, Collapse serves as a sort of wakeup call for our global society through the studies of past societal failures. Diamond believes that through successful group decision-making on the part of the society we stand a chance of not becoming another failed case study. History, as the saying goes, tends to repeat itself – there is an uncanny pattern of societal mistakes repeated over and over again as documented in the text. Many of these past mistakes can be avoided, and the repeating cycle of history broken if we learn from past mistakes such as the ones outlined in Collapse.

Submitted on 10:14 AM on 12/6/07