I read this last winter, but forgot to post a review here.
The complete title reads Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.
The book chronicles the rise and fall of the following civilizations: the Anasazi of the American Southwest, the Vikings of Greenland, Easter Island, and the Mayans.
I mainly read this book because I wanted to learn more about Easter Island and it's demise, and I did glean some pertinent, yet too brief, information from this book.
However, the book's premise is not really to be a detailed history of the above civilizations, yet to give an overview of their strengths and weaknesses, especially in terms of how they used their surrounding environment. In the above cases, the societies collapsed or, more accurately, dwindled away to nothing, because of their gradual, yet unrelenting depletion of natural resources.
One of the things that strikes me, personally, about Easter Island, is the question of when the inhabitants finally realized their days were literally numbered, and their resources would, indeed, disappear by the very next generation (if not sooner) - and they had to have undoubtedly realized it at some obvious point - why they didn't try and do something to turn the situation around. Why weren't some trees set aside to make rafts or boats to escape to another island? There is apparently no indication of it. All evidence suggests that the inhabitants simply bided their time while continuing to do the very same things that brought them to their demise - cut down trees, raise pigs and chickens and non-native crops in an environment that was not naturally set up for it, engage in petty tribal warfare and build huge, time and labor-consuming monuments that no one today really understands.
Sound familiar?
COLLAPSE apparently has offended quite a few folks, I'm not sure why. Doomsday predictions based on true events hurts?
Overall, a well-researched book, clearly and concisely written for the layman, with some hard lessons to swallow. I recommend it whether it depresses you or pisses you off.
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