Guus Bosman

software engineering director


You are here

Collapse -- How societies choose to fail or succeed

A year ago I read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond and I enjoyed that book tremendously. Collapse was just as good.

The book describes how various societies have failed in the past, and analyses what the root causes of those failures were. Deforestation and unsustainable population growth were some of the common causes, as was an inability by some societies to changes cultural values when necessary. The Norse Greenlanders for example, seemed to have had a taboo against fish eating -- incredible if you consider the availability of fresh fish in Greenland.

Collapse reads very nicely, and I enjoyed learning about fascinating societies, such as the one Easter Island and about the Greenland Norse people. The author ends with a cautiously optimistically note and even refers to the Dutch 'polder model' as an example of how societies can deal successfully with threats.

I bought the book in October 2006 and brought it to Bulgaria, but there I didn't really have time to read it so I finished it in the last few weeks.

language: 
English
Author: 
Jared Diamond
http://www.guusbosman.nl/images/books/collapse.jpg

Recent comments

Recently read

Books I've recently read: