COLLAPSE by Jared Diamond (Abridged)

Narrated by Christopher Murney

     Environmental Damage Will Get Us All in the End

This book has been in my library for years, and since I was on a history kick I decided to tackle it now. The first thing that struck me was the disparity in narrative impact between Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel and this book. Collapse has none of the human interest of the earlier work. He does give several examples of his theory of the reasons for cultural collapse—all of which are some variation of environmental damage. This reads (listens) like a piece of propaganda for the Climate Change believers.

At first I was disappointed that I had mistakenly obtained the abridged version, but after the first hour I began to wish for the end to come even sooner. I can recommend Guns, Germs and Steel as a thought provoking book; important for the cultural literacy of any conversationalist. Reading this book will not make you the life of any party. Hearing the doom and gloom of such cautionary tales from those looking to government to solve all of society’s ills is tedious and not at all entertaining.