Author(s): Jared Diamond

Science

In his runaway bestseller "Guns, Germs, and Steel," Jared Diamond brilliantly examined the circumstances that allowed Western civilizations to dominate much of the world. Now he probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to fall into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates? Using a vast historical and geographical perspective ranging from Easter Island and the Maya to Viking Greenland and modern Montana, Diamond traces a fundamental pattern of environmental catastropheaone whose warning signs can be seen in our modern world and that we ignore at our peril. Blending the most recent scientific advances into a narrative that is impossible to put down, "Collapse" exposes the deepest mysteries of the past even as it offers hope for the future.
aDiamondas most influential gift may be his ability to write about geopolitical and environmental systems in ways that donat just educate and provoke, but entertain.a "aThe Seattle Times"
aExtremely persuasive . . . replete with fascinating stories, a treasure trove of historical anecdotes [and] haunting statistics.a "aThe Boston Globe"
aExtraordinary in erudition and originality, compelling in [its] ability to relate the digitized pandemonium of the present to the hushed agrarian sunrises of the far past.a "aThe New York Times Book Review"