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. 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. What
happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What
happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way our
skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? 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. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily
Mail 'Riveting superb terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge
ambition and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines
like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times
