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Message:: [QUOTE="EWC3, post: 4379564, member: 93416"]Had not noticed this book before, so had a look at on-line summaries and reviews. Was not impressed. Surely ideas about reasons for the collapse of societies fascinate every generation – think of Hesiod and his “Ages of Man” which seems to me somewhat like the (vast) cycles of creation and destruction favoured in Hinduism. Or the varying approaches taken in the Bible, the Flood on one hand, or the Tower of Babel for another. Plato and Aristotle feared the rise of Democracy (which worried Keynes and Toynbee in the 20th century too). I was brought up to believe the Western Roman Empire collapsed due to excess taxation – still looks a good bet to me today. Speaking for myself, the “Collapse” book that impressed me most for its ideas was Ibn Khaldun’s “Muqaddimah” which hit the stores in time for Christmas, 1377. A kind of sophisticated working out of the Tower of Babel myth, as I read it. Meanwhile, from appearances, Diamond was just jumping on the Climate Change band wagon. Ignoring, say, the fascinating cyclical collapse of Chinese Dynasties every 300 years or so to focus rather heavily on the fragmentary evidence of a few tiny Island populations – or so it seems. Apparently I was unfair to suggest it was [USER=51347]@Alegandron[/USER]   who forgot what Diamond said about all advanced societies being Kleptocracies. The guy who maybe forgot this was Diamond himself……. Rob T[/QUOTE]