Collapse - Jared Diamond

From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. n n Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. n n What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island?

n What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? n Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? n n Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors.

n n 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail n n 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer n n 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis n n 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times n