Synopsis
Jared Diamond--a modern-day Gibbon with a scientific perspective--has created an instructive study of the decline and fall of civilizations and societies. In GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL, Diamond offered new and insightful reasons for the rise of civilizations; here he studies their fall, or collapse. His case studies include, among others, the once technologically advanced Mayans, the Anasazi in North America, the Easter Island inhabitants, and the Vikings, showing how environment and bad decisions were often factors in their collapse. Diamond believes that the actions of humans can halt or prevent decline, as he shows in the case of modern-day Japan, which has embarked on ambitious reforesting--and, importantly, Jared says the signs are there long before the collapse. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 2005.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2005-12-27 | | Edition Description: | Reprint |
| Size | | Length: | 575 pages | | Height: | 8.3 in | | Width: | 5.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 17.6 oz |
Publisher's Note
A study of the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations, written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, includes coverage of such cultures as the Anasazi, the Maya, and the Viking colony on Greenland, tracing patterns of environmental damage, climate change, poor political choices, and other factors that were pivotal to their demise. Reader's Guide available. Reprint.
Industry Reviews
"[D]ogged, fact-thick empiricism....[A] natural history of societal failure...."
New York Review of Books - Clifford Geertz (03/24/2005)
"[A] manifestly important work."
Times Literary Supplement - Niles Eldredge (05/13/2005)
"Diamond's case studies have a thoroughness appropriate to the moral seriousness of his inquiry."
London Review of Books - Partha Dasgupta (05/19/2005)
"[M]agnificent...extraordinary in erudition and originality, compelling in [its] ability to relate the digitalized pandemonium of the present to the hushed agrarian sunrises of the far past...."
(01/30/2005)
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