Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive

Published by Penguin Books, 2005, softcover, illustrated, index, 574 pages, condition: new.

From the ghostly stone heads of Easter Island to crumbling Mayan cities hidden deep in the jungle, the mysterious ruins of lost worlds and vanished civilizations continue to haunt us. How could such mighty societies fall? And could our skyscrapers one day stand derelict and overgrown like ancient temples?

Jared Diamond takes us on an epic journey around the globe, through the history of humanity and on to the future, to discover how - when tomorrow comes - we can be survivors.

This exhaustive study in Malthusian economics as applied to several societies in history that have failed, such as the Easter Islanders and Greenland Norse, details the thematic traits common to each example. His chapter on Easter Island made me think of Thor Heyerdahl's work there.

Most notably is how deforestation and imprudent population control applies to modern societies in trouble as well. I find myself thinking about this work frequently, his ideas resonate with our times, mirroring as they do, and as he shows us, with failed societies of the past.

Haunting and thought provoking and a damn fine book.