birdnerdbookworm's review against another edition
2.0
I'm only familiar with a couple of Diamond's case studies used in this book and I found them to be gross over simplifications of events. It felt like he was trying to make everything fit within the framework of his primary thesis of environmental collapses, which meant all other possible causes had to be thrown out. If this is the case with the examples I am familiar with, it's hard for me to fully trust that Diamond is telling the complete story of each case study presented in the book. While the overall thesis may be true, I think Diamond tries too hard to get everything to align perfectly with the thesis. It all felt too forced.
And don't get me started on Diamond's fantasy that he can play the role of a political scientist. His attempts were laughable at best, but more often infuriating.
And don't get me started on Diamond's fantasy that he can play the role of a political scientist. His attempts were laughable at best, but more often infuriating.
lakecake's review against another edition
3.0
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.
statman's review against another edition
3.0
I had previously read, Jared Diamond earlier book "Guns, Germs and Steel" and found it to be fascinating. So I decided to try this one and I thought it was good. Diamond is a very good writer and can make the archaeology and anthropology interesting. I enjoyed the beginning two thirds of the book which discussed various historical societies, like Easter Island, the Vikings and the Maya. I particularly enjoyed the portions about the Anasazai (because I've seen a lot of their ruins living in Arizona) and the Dominican Republic (because Jeni has a lot of cool mission stories about that area). The last third turned more into a rant against population growth and doomsday predictions of how our world today will collapse, just like these earlier societies did.
sarah_dietrich's review against another edition
3.0
The good bits, Greenland and Iceland especially, are great. By the second half it gets very repetitive, and there's too much speculation for my taste.
readingslug's review against another edition
3.0
Ok so basically this book took me so long to read. It was interesting and I learned a lot, but it didn't manage to glue me to my seat, riveted. So it gets three stars for interesting and educational, loses two stars for unnecessarily long and not quite interesting enough.
alex_hev's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
Very well researched and an incredible amount of detail (the further reading section just kept going!). Ended up all being a tale of: if you properly take care of your environment, you'll be alright. Hopefully we all come to that realization soon enough.
tominaz's review against another edition
4.0
Jared Diamond, it has been posited, is really ten or so experts publishing under one name. He draws on penetrating knowledge of multiple disciplines to render compelling portraits of historical failed societies and the reasons for their collapse. Alarming but hopeful as he offers some potential solutions to the modern problems of sustainability.