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alykat_reads's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Overall, loving the message of this book. This book focuses on 7 nations - US, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Germany, Australia, and Finland. I did learn a lot about Chile, Indonesia, and Finland - all countries that aren't really ever mentioned or talked about in US history or social studies classes. I did learn quite a bit and found topics I want to look more into. I also learned the real meaning behind the phrase "grandfathered in". Maybe just ignorance on my part but I never knew where that saying came from, but of course it has racist origins.
DEFINITELY will be looking more into Pinochet, as that was someone I'd never heard of before. While I'm not denying the atrocity that was the Holocaust, it's been pretty telling to me lately through reading about many other nations how much the Holocaust is centered/focused on while atrocities greater than that are just ignored. Again, I'm not denying the Holocaust or that it was terrible. It's just that it's framed in the way that "no other people suffered like we did", when over 2/3 of victims of the Holocaust are rarely talked about/mentioned, and that many, many other groups around the world have suffered just as horrible atrocities - Chile, South Africa, Rwanda, Congo, and Sudan, just to name a few. Just further proof of how ingrained white supremacy is throughout the world.
There were a few things I didn't really care for in this book, which is why I deducted a star. This book is about nations in crisis. I'd say that the genocide of indigenous people in the US and Australia is a pretty big crisis, but the author doesn't even acknowledge them. While I do agree with him that current (the last ~20 years) issues in the US can be considered crises and it's okay to examine them, it felt disingenuous when talking about Australians and how they have an 'identity' crisis of 'are they British or not?'... Like the British colonized that land and you can't even mention the Aboriginals / First Nations people and their existence? Idk, it just seemed neglectful considering the topic of this book.
The author definitely put in time with the research that went into this, and the sheer amount of information in here. I'm looking forward to reading the other 2 books in this 'series.'
DEFINITELY will be looking more into Pinochet, as that was someone I'd never heard of before. While I'm not denying the atrocity that was the Holocaust, it's been pretty telling to me lately through reading about many other nations how much the Holocaust is centered/focused on while atrocities greater than that are just ignored. Again, I'm not denying the Holocaust or that it was terrible. It's just that it's framed in the way that "no other people suffered like we did", when over 2/3 of victims of the Holocaust are rarely talked about/mentioned, and that many, many other groups around the world have suffered just as horrible atrocities - Chile, South Africa, Rwanda, Congo, and Sudan, just to name a few. Just further proof of how ingrained white supremacy is throughout the world.
There were a few things I didn't really care for in this book, which is why I deducted a star. This book is about nations in crisis. I'd say that the genocide of indigenous people in the US and Australia is a pretty big crisis, but the author doesn't even acknowledge them. While I do agree with him that current (the last ~20 years) issues in the US can be considered crises and it's okay to examine them, it felt disingenuous when talking about Australians and how they have an 'identity' crisis of 'are they British or not?'... Like the British colonized that land and you can't even mention the Aboriginals / First Nations people and their existence? Idk, it just seemed neglectful considering the topic of this book.
The author definitely put in time with the research that went into this, and the sheer amount of information in here. I'm looking forward to reading the other 2 books in this 'series.'
clarareads1000books's review against another edition
3.0
Despite a few paragraphs and points of view that frustrated me very much in this book, I did enjoy it and learned a lot overall. If you take it as a brief history of 7 random nations, rather than an analysis of how countries deal with crises, there is a lot of interesting stuff in this book.
For example, I did not know anything about the Pinochet regime in Chile, the details of the Meiji period in Japan, Finland's Winter War or post-war Australian society. Because we do a bit of a trip around the world, you don't get bored, as every country has a very unique and fascinating history, and Diamond does touch on many aspects and recounts these histories well.
On the other hand, the book relies on too much anecdotic evidence to really convince me about the broad conclusions regarding how these countries dealt well or not well with their respective crises and what that means regarding nations and crises in general and for the future world. I feel like the opinion of a country having dealt "well" or "not well" with a crisis is often based on subjective factors and personal opinions (Diamond clearly loves Finland, therefore paints its "Finlandization" rather positively, while kind of hating on Chile and blaming a democratic government for the subsequent terrible regime of Pinochet).
It is obviously quite clearly written for Americans, which is a bit annoying (e.g. "Finland has as national day the commemoration of their war with Russia, that would be like as if Americans celebrated the end of the civil war instead of the 4th of July", is that clarification really necessary?).
Lastly, saying that one of the three major problems of globalization is terrorism, and not even mentioning the much more relevant effects of inequality and neocolonialism, is rather outrageous.
For example, I did not know anything about the Pinochet regime in Chile, the details of the Meiji period in Japan, Finland's Winter War or post-war Australian society. Because we do a bit of a trip around the world, you don't get bored, as every country has a very unique and fascinating history, and Diamond does touch on many aspects and recounts these histories well.
On the other hand, the book relies on too much anecdotic evidence to really convince me about the broad conclusions regarding how these countries dealt well or not well with their respective crises and what that means regarding nations and crises in general and for the future world. I feel like the opinion of a country having dealt "well" or "not well" with a crisis is often based on subjective factors and personal opinions (Diamond clearly loves Finland, therefore paints its "Finlandization" rather positively, while kind of hating on Chile and blaming a democratic government for the subsequent terrible regime of Pinochet).
It is obviously quite clearly written for Americans, which is a bit annoying (e.g. "Finland has as national day the commemoration of their war with Russia, that would be like as if Americans celebrated the end of the civil war instead of the 4th of July", is that clarification really necessary?).
Lastly, saying that one of the three major problems of globalization is terrorism, and not even mentioning the much more relevant effects of inequality and neocolonialism, is rather outrageous.
jyaremchuk's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 rounded up to 4 ****
The 12-point plan/structure didn't quite work for me, but the chapters on Finland and Japan were excellent, and certainly relevant to today's world.
The 12-point plan/structure didn't quite work for me, but the chapters on Finland and Japan were excellent, and certainly relevant to today's world.
anotherpath's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to this one. I sort of think I want to read my next Jared Diamond book. They're fairly engrossing to listen to, and I think it would be less of an effort to get through it. It just takes me forever to finish audiobooks anymore.
In this work Diamond compares 7 Nations going through a time of crisis across decades or centuries. Diamond's assesment of each country and their relative ability to find some sort of crisis resolvement.
His assessment of the United States was fascinating, frank, and well thought out. I need to find a paper-back of the book just to re-read that section. I thoroughly enjoyed when he discussed the wealth disparity between the richest and the poorest in our country, and summed up the Wealthy Class' responsibilty over the gap by saying something along the lines of, 'The poor's frustration will disrupt your lives and safety, and you will not be able to escape that.'
We should listen to people like Jared Diamond more. I look forward to reading my next book of his.
“Yet we promise developing countries that, if they will only adopt good policies, like honest government and free market economies, they too can become like the First World today. That promise is utterly impossible, a cruel hoax. We are already having difficulty supporting a First World lifestyle even now, when only 1 billion people out of the world’s 7.5 billion people enjoy it.”
In this work Diamond compares 7 Nations going through a time of crisis across decades or centuries. Diamond's assesment of each country and their relative ability to find some sort of crisis resolvement.
His assessment of the United States was fascinating, frank, and well thought out. I need to find a paper-back of the book just to re-read that section. I thoroughly enjoyed when he discussed the wealth disparity between the richest and the poorest in our country, and summed up the Wealthy Class' responsibilty over the gap by saying something along the lines of, 'The poor's frustration will disrupt your lives and safety, and you will not be able to escape that.'
We should listen to people like Jared Diamond more. I look forward to reading my next book of his.
“Yet we promise developing countries that, if they will only adopt good policies, like honest government and free market economies, they too can become like the First World today. That promise is utterly impossible, a cruel hoax. We are already having difficulty supporting a First World lifestyle even now, when only 1 billion people out of the world’s 7.5 billion people enjoy it.”
kevenwang's review against another edition
4.0
Decent relevancy. Would not expect anything less from Diamond
jeffmauch's review against another edition
5.0
A solid history book from Jared Diamond isn't a surprise really, but just how much I enjoyed it truly was. I went into this thinking I'd find the exploration of how different nations deal with a major crisis to be boring, but it couldn't have been further from the truth. The first chapter exploring how individual people deal with crisis was somewhat boring, but from there on out it was hard to put the book down. I think a big reason for that is many of the historical events used as examples in this book are one's that I am familiar with, but which I lack a deep understanding. Sure, I most people have an idea of post WW2 Germany, the Berlin airlifts and Berlin wall and how that played out, but many are far less familiar with Finland's winter war with Russia prior to WW2, or how the Japanese reacted to their post isolation years after Commodore Perry sailed into their waters. This was a thought provoking read that has piqued my interests in a few historical events that I clearly need to learn more about.
jamscoopa's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book but ultimately it was fairly shallow and too strung out. The premise that you can judge a country's ability to handle crises in the same way is intersting, but the actualy thesis I thought lacked depth. I liked the stories for each country, Diamond is a good storyteller, and while the conclusions were seemingly correct, the process was lacking for me.