Book review Collapse

Book review of Collapse- How societies choose to fail or succeed

Powerful, admonitory and educational, all adjectives that classify Jared Diamonds work Collapse-Why societies choose to fail or succeed. This work is an eye opener and takes the reader on a journey through the rise and fall of societies of the past two thousand years. He does not look back to judge but to help understand the necessary changes in our modern globalised society. The work written from an American stand point relates to a modern example of the state of Montana, which although it being one of the most ecological states starts to feel the effects of environmental damage. He relates the issues to individual people and therefore gives the issue a face. Under this consideration Diamond takes a look at a row of societies, including past societies such as the Vikings, Mayas or the inhabitants of the Easter islands, but also analyses modern societies such as Rwanda, New Guinea and Australia. Often the failures among these societies are due to environmental damage amongst the five issues of environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors and friendly trade partners and most significantly the societies. Not every society is influenced by these factors by realizing where they failed and where they succeeded we can see where we need to change in order to balance our modern world. The issues are growing; they are not new just simply on a larger scale. However Diamond presents us with evidence, explaining in detail the scientific methods, of how previous societies dealt with the issues. He applies his assessment to the moral structure of the industries and individuals in the modern world. If everybody read Jared Diamonds work Collapse soon society would recognize its flaws. There is a possibility to learn from the past to not treat our environment in an endless storage of resources that we can plunder. Those who want to know what history can teach us and how we need to change are recommended to read the compelling work of Diamond as it is not only educational but also entertaining.

Collapse Precis

The concept of the report is that it is possible to learn from previously successful or unsuccessful societies to ensure the success of the own society. According to Jared Diamond, the author of Collapse- How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed his argument is structured the way a boa constrictor would look like if it had swallowed two very large sheep. The First sheep is a modern lengthy example of Montana followed by a row of shorter chapters that increase in length as they deal with more and more complex scenarios. This includes the examinations of the Easter Islands, the Pitcairn islands, the Anasazi, the Maya, the Viking expansion, New Guinea, Japan, Rwanda, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as China and Australia. All these societies vary considerably not only in location, but also in their cultural structure. However all of these societies failed or succeeded for five specific reasons: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbours and friendly trade partners and most significantly the society’s response to the environmental problems. Some societies made poor decisions in these categories, sometimes they did not have control over the conditions, but in the case of collapse the society always carries a certain part of the responsibility. When starting the book the author thought of it a book about the effects climate change had on societies but soon realised that the set of factors above almost always contributed. The collapse or success of a society is a complex study that employs broad spectra of the sciences to extract information about societies that have vanished for hundreds of years.
As this is a very impersonal topic as societies consist of numerous people that then vanish into anonymity, he starts off by relating the effects of the five factors he established to personal friends of his or to the fates of individual he met during his research. The first chapter, one of the longest in the book, has the same effect. As this piece is written of an American point of view, he assumes Montana to be an example that relates to the readers, as many might have been there or live under similar conditions. Also this is a modern example which indicates the importance for the present times. He interweaves many personal stories, including his own, to show how real the problems are. This includes acid leaking from mines, forest fires, destruction of eco-zones, air and water pollution as well as soil erosion and economic problems. He gives the views on the problems of multiple sides, for example the opinion of a logger and an environmentalist on the topic of over logging in Montana. Although Montana seems as if it was a beautiful place without problems, Jared Diamond makes clear that it is a beautiful place with problems. He suggests solutions and points out flaws in the planning and the reasons of position, all backed up with expert opinion and scientific proof. He makes a well educated impression, but most importantly he states: “Hence as you read this book, and as you consider environmental problems posed mostly in impersonal terms, please think of the problems of those other societies as viewed by individual people like Stan Falkow,.....”

Chapter two deals with the rise and collapse of the Easter Island and the gives detailed history, ranging from settlement to tribe rivalry, as far as historians and scientists have put it together for the reader to understand the situation. The Easter Islands had a culture but with the creation of the statues overstressed the resources of the island. It became deforested, which made it victim to soil erosion as was found out from pollen samples on the island ranging a few hundred years back. For the five factors environmental damage, hostile encounter and reaction to environmental problems led to the collapse of the Easter Island society. Very similar is the case of the Pitcairn Islands except the element of trading partners and the fading away of these connections played a significant role.

The next two chapters deal with the collapse of the Anaszi and the Maya. He again gives detailed background on the History so the reader understands the mentality of the society and then with the backup of the research of pollen scientists, archaeologists and the methods of carbon tracking explains one by one the factors that helped the downfall. This included deforestation, overpopulation, structural problems in the society, soil erosion and droughts and hostile encounters which mean that all but the trading partners played a role in the downfall. He shows incredible profound knowledge about the methods the scientists applies and links the results to modern societies.

The topic of the Viking expansion is even more complex which includes the settlements of the Faeroe Islands, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland and Vinland which is in Canada. He analyses the fate of each settlement, of a success on the Faeroe Islands and in Iceland due to relative close distance to main land and the failure of the Vinland colonies. He also stresses the importance of the Greenland settlement. Iceland only managed its problems after an extreme case of deforestation and had to change the society’s base to fish and not sheep. In Greenland the problem was that the Vikings continued their life style they were used from home, which however was not suitable for Greenland’s sensible environment. They also refused to eat fish as bone analysis show. They were unwilling to adapt and carried on, which worked for a few generations but soon led to the complete collapse. Furthermore there was a decline in trading which was important for iron and wood and without the trading ships the Viking settlement was in constant decline. On the other hand there was a successful society on Greenland, the Inuit, who had adapted to the environment eve farther north than the Vikings. The Vikings refused to learn from the Inuit and as a result the Inuit succeeded while the Vikings failed. The five points all play a role. There was a climate change, as the Vikings arrived in a series of mild years, which they falsely assumed to be normal conditions and therefore behaved wrong when the cold season came. There was hostile encounter however very little, the decline in trade and the lack of adaption.

The next chapters deal with modern societies ranging from the bottom up reform of New Guinea which prevented a collapse of the society to a top down reform in Japan which made Japan one of the most successful countries on earth. These two success stories are followed by the disaster of the Rwandan genocide and the environmental problems of deforestation and soil erosion in China and Australia. These societies are all significantly more complex than for example the Easter Islands, considering the phenomenon of ethnic hatred in Rwanda and the size of China. This size carries the problem of overpopulation but also great power to react quickly and effectively and affect a large number of people such as the one child policy (which was debateable but still affected many) The ecosystem in Australia is very fragile and the Australian way of treating it was very much affected by the British ancestors. Other examples are Haiti and the Dominican Republic who live on the same island but due to slight variations in geography but also History are very different today. One example is the death penalty on logging in the Dominican Republic that was enforced for decades. All these societies still exist today and might overcome their problems by looking at the past and learn of the mistakes of others.

Another problem are the business models of many oil, logging and sea food companies in modern days which can cause great problems in the areas they operate. Many of these business models need to change otherwise this could lead to future catastrophes that affect not only one society but the whole globe. The societies need to learn from the past, considered the factors that caused the downfall of the Easter Islands, the Maya or the Vikings to overcome current problems such as overpopulation and climate destabilisation.