Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Upheaval - Jared Diamond


Pandemic book list. 20th item.
In “Guns, Germs and Steel” and “Collapse” (see previous posts), Jared Diamond explains why civilisations respectively rise and fall. In “Upheaval”, on the other hand, he tries to understand how countries cope with momentous crises. He takes into account six examples that for a reason or another he’s related with: Finland (USSR invasion), Chile (Allende’s politics and Pinochet’s coup), Germany (post WWII shock), Japan (Commodore Perry’s fleet threat), Indonesia (Suharto’s counter coup) and Australia (post colonial era shock). He also tries to trace a parallel between nations' and individuals' approach to crises, and concludes that the two levels have a lot in common.
In the final chapters Diamond speculates on whether the US, Japan and the whole world are taking the right steps to cope with their current crises.
Interesting book, even if you are just curious about the six crisis examples.

No comments: