A review by birdnerdbookworm
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond

2.0

I'm only familiar with a couple of Diamond's case studies used in this book and I found them to be gross over simplifications of events. It felt like he was trying to make everything fit within the framework of his primary thesis of environmental collapses, which meant all other possible causes had to be thrown out. If this is the case with the examples I am familiar with, it's hard for me to fully trust that Diamond is telling the complete story of each case study presented in the book. While the overall thesis may be true, I think Diamond tries too hard to get everything to align perfectly with the thesis. It all felt too forced.

And don't get me started on Diamond's fantasy that he can play the role of a political scientist. His attempts were laughable at best, but more often infuriating.