how societies choose to fail or succeed Diamond, Jared M. creator text bibliography nyu New York Penguin Books 2005 This Edition published in 2006 monographic eng

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575 pages : maps ; illustrations ; 21 cm 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. Jared Diamond. Includes bibliographical references (p. [529]-560) and index. Social history Case studies Social change Case studies Environmental policy Case studies HN13 .D5 2005 304.2/8 0670033375 9780140279511 2004057152 DLC 040813 20240110140155.0 2706 eng