What could be more threatening than the specter of a civilization's collapse - the abandoned temples of Angkor Wat, the jungle-covered cities of the Maya, and the grim statues of Easter Island? Who has faced such ruins and not wondered, 'Could the same happen to us?'

In this book, Diamond weaves a thorough and universal argument through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Wandering from the ancient culture of the islands of Polynesia to the once-flourishing civilization of the Anasazi, to the doomed Viking colony in Greenland, and finally to the modern world, Diamond traces a fundamental pattern of destruction, clarifying what happens when we squander our natural resources or ignore the signs of the environment.

Climate change, rapid population growth, unstable trading partners, and pressure from enemies have been factors in the demise of some societies; however, other societies found solutions to the same problems and survived. Why have some societies, but not all, reached self-destruction through their own errors? What economic, social, and political choices do we still have to avoid meeting the same fate?

[Excerpt from publisher's or edition's promotional text]