You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
This book is everything it says on the tin, and more -- almost the best thing about it is the potted histories of the countries concerned. An excellent, thought-provoking, and concerning read.
Not my favourite Diamond book, for sure. But fine.
“Those who study just one country end up understanding no country.”
While I appreciate what Diamond is attempting in Upheaval, I can't say he sticks the landing.
Overall, I felt this book was extremely underwhelming especially when compared to the Pulitzer Prize winning [b:Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies|1842|Guns, Germs, and Steel The Fates of Human Societies|Jared Diamond|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453215833l/1842._SY75_.jpg|2138852] and even [b:Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed|475|Collapse How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed|Jared Diamond|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441419222l/475._SY75_.jpg|1041106]. Not to be ageist, but as an octogenarian it felt as though Diamond is letting end of life sentimentalism and nostalgia cloud the literary waters.
Upheaval relies heavily on the countries Diamond spent the most time in, resulting in a lot of: "a [insert nation] friend of mine," or, "my [insert nation] friend told me ..."
Yes, he tried something new: applying the psychology of trauma response to nations instead of people. Original enough, but consequently filled with big stretches, hypotheticals, and a plethora of potentialities.
Extrapolating anything from such a hodge podge of different nations and situations, as you can guess, gets a little messy and convoluted. Somewhere along the way, it's almost as if Diamond loses his own thread and starts to throw in everything plus the kitchen sink. I've been having trouble putting my finger on what exactly threw me off this book, and I think it's the skimming nature of it. A sweeping view of many things can be difficult to pull off, although Yuval Noah Harari did an excellent job in [b:Sapiens: A Brief History of Human Kind|23692271|Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind|Yuval Noah Harari|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1420585954l/23692271._SY75_.jpg|18962767].
You might say this book is ... all over the map.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3, because: Jared. Diamond. The legend, and I absolutely loved Guns, Germs and Steel as well as Collapse. I have a sneaking suspicion that many of the high ratings on here are because of his past books and reputation more than this actual book. He gets the automatic *Diamond Pass.*
Anand Giridharadas panned the book in his review for the New York Times, calling it "sloppy" and "riddled with errors." He feels the book calls into question our decision to revere certain authors—particularly white, male ones—because they've produced respected works in the past.
Upheaval is a muddled middle of the road for me, albeit with bonus points for the optimistic tone after the rather depressing Collapse. It is also one of Bill Gates' top 5 summer reads, and "shows that there's a path through crisis and that we can choose to take it."
While I appreciate what Diamond is attempting in Upheaval, I can't say he sticks the landing.
Overall, I felt this book was extremely underwhelming especially when compared to the Pulitzer Prize winning [b:Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies|1842|Guns, Germs, and Steel The Fates of Human Societies|Jared Diamond|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453215833l/1842._SY75_.jpg|2138852] and even [b:Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed|475|Collapse How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed|Jared Diamond|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1441419222l/475._SY75_.jpg|1041106]. Not to be ageist, but as an octogenarian it felt as though Diamond is letting end of life sentimentalism and nostalgia cloud the literary waters.
Upheaval relies heavily on the countries Diamond spent the most time in, resulting in a lot of: "a [insert nation] friend of mine," or, "my [insert nation] friend told me ..."
Yes, he tried something new: applying the psychology of trauma response to nations instead of people. Original enough, but consequently filled with big stretches, hypotheticals, and a plethora of potentialities.
Extrapolating anything from such a hodge podge of different nations and situations, as you can guess, gets a little messy and convoluted. Somewhere along the way, it's almost as if Diamond loses his own thread and starts to throw in everything plus the kitchen sink. I've been having trouble putting my finger on what exactly threw me off this book, and I think it's the skimming nature of it. A sweeping view of many things can be difficult to pull off, although Yuval Noah Harari did an excellent job in [b:Sapiens: A Brief History of Human Kind|23692271|Sapiens A Brief History of Humankind|Yuval Noah Harari|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1420585954l/23692271._SY75_.jpg|18962767].
You might say this book is ... all over the map.
2.5 stars rounded up to 3, because: Jared. Diamond. The legend, and I absolutely loved Guns, Germs and Steel as well as Collapse. I have a sneaking suspicion that many of the high ratings on here are because of his past books and reputation more than this actual book. He gets the automatic *Diamond Pass.*
Anand Giridharadas panned the book in his review for the New York Times, calling it "sloppy" and "riddled with errors." He feels the book calls into question our decision to revere certain authors—particularly white, male ones—because they've produced respected works in the past.
Upheaval is a muddled middle of the road for me, albeit with bonus points for the optimistic tone after the rather depressing Collapse. It is also one of Bill Gates' top 5 summer reads, and "shows that there's a path through crisis and that we can choose to take it."
Pre-Script: the reading of this book was unwittingly timely. It's hard to imagine how future historians will reflect on today's current events.
Diamond offers a narrative view of national crises and a framework for comparison and concludes with outlines the path to do so in a quantitative method in the future. By using personally familiar countries, Diamond acknowledges his bias but the application of individual resilience model to national emergencies is solid. He may or may not be correct in his assessments, but I've come away from the book more knowledgeable and wiser for having read it.
Diamond offers a narrative view of national crises and a framework for comparison and concludes with outlines the path to do so in a quantitative method in the future. By using personally familiar countries, Diamond acknowledges his bias but the application of individual resilience model to national emergencies is solid. He may or may not be correct in his assessments, but I've come away from the book more knowledgeable and wiser for having read it.
The premise of using personal crisis therapy indicators as a framework for nation wide crisis was not as satisfying as previous books'. Still, the last third of the book was a efficient wrap up and there is a balance and pratical compass that make it useful. Good, but I think that waiting for a book's availability (something I was not used to, because I used to not have any idea of the publishing dates) is not good for me. It creates unnecessary expectations, that will cloud my enjoyment and perception of the book.
challenging
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
How does he manage to make these topics so insanely dry and boring.
I picked this up in an airport in London as one of those "shoot I'm bored and have a flight" book, having read GG&S and not entirely sure what to expect. Studying IR and having a vague knowledge of history, this reminded me how little I know about specifics, and the importance of other lenses of analysis. It gave me a really interesting contextualization that feels extremely relevant to the feeling of chaos and upheaval in current political climate.
E' il primo libro di Jared Diamond che leggo, e di certo non sarà l'ultimo.
Ho molto apprezzato la sua scrittura: è scorrevolissimo e chiaro, ed è anche piuttosto onesto e serio: nell'introduzione, infatti, spiega bene l'approccio adottato, evidenziandone anche i limiti (in particolare, l'assenza di analisi quantitativa a supporto di quella qualitativa) e non credo che sia una cosa scontata.
Come intuibile dal titolo, il saggio è relativo al superamento delle crisi da parte delle nazioni.
Più precisamente, Diamond racconta sei crisi "superate": il rapporto della Finlandia con l'URSS (e ora la Russia) dopo la seconda guerra mondiale, il periodo Meji del Giappone, il Cile di Pinochet, la nascita dell'Indonesia, la Germania dopo la seconda guerra mondiale e la crisi identitaria dell'Australia.
In alcuni casi, copre periodi piuttosto grandi (ad esempio, in pratica per l'Australia ci racconta tutta la sua storia), per cui il concetto stesso di "crisi" è piuttosto opinabile.
Inoltre, parla anche di "crisi" in corso: il Giappone, gli Stati Uniti (a cui dedica ampio spazio, secondo me avrebbe potuto ridurre il discorso in un capitolo invece di due) e il mondo globalizzato.
Per poi trarre le conclusioni di tutto il discorso, comparando le varie nazioni e cercando di trarne delle "lezioni" per il futuro.
Per analizzare le crisi di queste nazioni, l'autore parte dalla descrizione delle crisi personali (cioè quelle degli individui). Seleziona alcuni fattori di gestione delle crisi personali e li adatta poi alle nazioni: per ogni Paese, dopo averne raccontato le vicende, cerca di analizzare le crisi proprio utilizzando lo schema di questi fattori.
Per quanto sia sicuramente interessante tutti i discorsi che fa sulle gestioni delle crisi, io in realtà ho trovato decisamente più interessante l'aspetto "storico" del saggio. Ignoravo gran parte delle vicende descritte, e sono raccontate molto bene (pur lavorando di sintesi, ovviamente).
Ho molto apprezzato la sua scrittura: è scorrevolissimo e chiaro, ed è anche piuttosto onesto e serio: nell'introduzione, infatti, spiega bene l'approccio adottato, evidenziandone anche i limiti (in particolare, l'assenza di analisi quantitativa a supporto di quella qualitativa) e non credo che sia una cosa scontata.
Come intuibile dal titolo, il saggio è relativo al superamento delle crisi da parte delle nazioni.
Più precisamente, Diamond racconta sei crisi "superate": il rapporto della Finlandia con l'URSS (e ora la Russia) dopo la seconda guerra mondiale, il periodo Meji del Giappone, il Cile di Pinochet, la nascita dell'Indonesia, la Germania dopo la seconda guerra mondiale e la crisi identitaria dell'Australia.
In alcuni casi, copre periodi piuttosto grandi (ad esempio, in pratica per l'Australia ci racconta tutta la sua storia), per cui il concetto stesso di "crisi" è piuttosto opinabile.
Inoltre, parla anche di "crisi" in corso: il Giappone, gli Stati Uniti (a cui dedica ampio spazio, secondo me avrebbe potuto ridurre il discorso in un capitolo invece di due) e il mondo globalizzato.
Per poi trarre le conclusioni di tutto il discorso, comparando le varie nazioni e cercando di trarne delle "lezioni" per il futuro.
Per analizzare le crisi di queste nazioni, l'autore parte dalla descrizione delle crisi personali (cioè quelle degli individui). Seleziona alcuni fattori di gestione delle crisi personali e li adatta poi alle nazioni: per ogni Paese, dopo averne raccontato le vicende, cerca di analizzare le crisi proprio utilizzando lo schema di questi fattori.
Per quanto sia sicuramente interessante tutti i discorsi che fa sulle gestioni delle crisi, io in realtà ho trovato decisamente più interessante l'aspetto "storico" del saggio. Ignoravo gran parte delle vicende descritte, e sono raccontate molto bene (pur lavorando di sintesi, ovviamente).
I didn't know what to expect picking this one up, I'm not a big history/geography fan but wow this book was so much fun to read! I hope by the time I am Diamond's age, I've had the same amount of experiences and opportunities to travel to all these different places. A nice collection of countries discussed, and Diamond helps by scattering in personal anecdotes that ground the book. Feel like I've learnt a lot in the time it took me to read it, and definitely looking forward to exploring more of his work soon.