Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed / Jared Diamond

London : Penguin Books, 2005. First Edition. Hardcover. Library copy. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust-wrapper, now mylar-sleeved. Particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description; xi, 575 p., [24] p. of plates ; 20 cm. Notes; Cover subtitle: how societies choose to fail or survive. Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents; Prologue : a tale of two farms -- pt. 1: Modern Montana. Under Montana's big sky -- pt. 2: Past societies. Twilight at Easter -- The last people alive : Pitcairn and Henderson Islands -- The ancient ones : the Anasazi and their neighbors -- The Maya collapses -- The Viking prelude and fugues -- Norse Greenland's flowering -- Norse Greenland's end -- Opposite paths to success -- pt. 3: Modern societies. Malthus in Africa : Rwanda's genocide -- One island, two peoples, two histories : the Dominican Republic and Haiti -- China, lurching giant -- ""Mining"" Australia -- pt. 4: Practical lessons. Why do some societies make disastrous decisions? -- Big businesses and the environment : different conditions, different outcomes -- The world as a polder : what does it all mean to us today? Subjects; Environmental policy. Human ecology. Nature Effect of human beings on. Social change. Nature and civilization History. Environmental degradation History. Human ecology. Nature Effect of human beings. Social changeEnvironmental policy. Social history ; Case studies.