Super Short Summary

Following his best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997), Jared Diamond's companion book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2006, updated 2011), discusses how environmental abuse ruined many past societies and threatens civilizations today. Diamond identifies five major causes for cultural failures: human ecological impacts, climate changes, hostile neighbors, friendly neighbors who withdraw, and a society’s refusal to adapt. Through detailed examples, including the Anasazi, Maya, and Vikings, he highlights how some societies ignored environmental warnings and collapsed, while others adapted and survived. Modern parallels are drawn with contemporary nations like Rwanda, Haiti versus the Dominican Republic, China, and Australia, warning of similar dangers today and providing lessons for navigating environmental challenges effectively. The book includes a revised chapter on Angkor's rise and fall, photographs, an annotated bibliography, and an index. Includes discussion of war and mass violence.