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Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed  Cover Image Book Book

Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed / Jared Diamond.

Diamond, Jared M. (Author).

Summary:

What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates? Diamond weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of historical-cultural narratives. Moving from the prehistoric Polynesian culture of Easter Island to the formerly flourishing Native American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya, the doomed medieval Viking colony on Greenland, and finally to the modern world, Diamond traces a pattern of catastrophe, spelling out what happens when we squander our resources, when we ignore the signals or environment gives us.

Record details

  • ISBN: 0670033375
  • ISBN: 36305002024322
  • Physical Description: xi, 575 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
  • Publisher: New York : Viking, 2005.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (p. [529]-560) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Prologue : a tale of two farms -- pt. 1: Modern Montana. Under Montana's big sky -- pt. 2: Past societies. Twilight at Easter -- The last people alive : Pitcairn and Henderson Islands -- The ancient ones : the Anasazi and their neighbors -- The Maya collapses -- The Viking prelude and fugues -- Norse Greenland's flowering -- Norse Greenland's end -- Opposite paths to success -- pt. 3: Modern societies. Malthus in Africa : Rwanda's genocide -- One island, two peoples, two histories : the Dominican Republic and Haiti -- China, lurching giant -- "Mining" Australia -- pt. 4: Practical lessons. Why do some societies make disastrous decisions? -- Big businesses and the environment : different conditions, different outcomes -- The world as a polder : what does it all mean to us today?
Target Audience Note:
1460L Lexile
Study Program Information Note:
Accelerated Reader UG 12.3 48 48 101906
Subject: Social history > Case studies.
Social change > Case studies.
Environmental policy > Case studies.

Available copies

  • 5 of 5 copies available at Lehigh Carbon Library Cooperative.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 5 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Emmaus Public Library 304.28 DIAM (Text) 3644600142901/ Adult Nonfiction Available -
Lower Macungie Library 304.28 DIA (Text) 33400000606155 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Parkland Community Library 304.28 DIA (Text) 34422006037002 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Southern Lehigh Public Library 304.28 DIA (Text)
Bookplate: This book was purchased in honor of John M. & Lisbeth S. Gaughan for their donation to the Southern Lehigh Public Library Gift of Books Campaign 2004.
30044100207358 Adult Nonfiction Available -
Whitehall Township Public Library 304.28 DIAM (Text) 36305002024322 Adult Nonfiction Available -


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