Wired Reviews Jared Diamond’s “Collapse” — This caught my eye because I very much enjoyed Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel. In Collapse,
[Diamond’s] subject . . . is the demise of whole societies, especially where collapse is sudden and total, contrasted with the ingenious survival of other societies that faced the same dangers.
. . .
Diamond identifies five major causes of societal collapse: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, loss of trade partners, and stupidity. Any one or two plus stupidity will do.
(Guns, Germs, & Steel identified geographic reasons for certain societies dominating the world while others never progressed. If I recall correctly, societies had a much easier time where they were located on a continent with an east-west access and had loads of domesticable animals.)
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