preview

What Is Jared Diamond's 'The Ends Of The World As We Know Them'

Decent Essays

The Ends of the World as We Know Them by Jared Diamond describes the factors that made powerful societies through history collapse. What makes this text interesting, is the way the author relates these problems to the current situation in the United States. Diamond develops a very effective technique during the description of these factors by creating a parallelism between ancient societies and the modern age. This parallelism allows the author to analyze the problems that threaten modern day society and more specifically the United States. One very important feature of Diamonds analysis and description in the text is the level at which the reader is involved. The author engages the reader in thinking critically about the problems and their …show more content…

The most straightforward: take environmental problems seriously. They destroyed societies in the past , and they are even more likely to do so now. In 6,000 Polynesians with stone tools were able to destroy Mangareva Islands, consider what six billion people with metal tools and bulldozers are doing today. Moreover, while the Maya collapse affected just a few neighboring societies in Central America, globalization now means that any society’s problems have the potential to affect anyone else. Just think how crises in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq have shaped the United States today. “ (646) In this paragraph the author engages the reader in thinking about the magnitude of environmental problems in modern day society by creating a parallelism with the Mayan and Polynesian cultures. This is one of the many examples the author uses throughout the text. In this text Diamond introduces a series of factors that have proven to gradually destroy strong kingdoms and cultures throughout history. He thinks of these factors as a useful checklist that should be examined in order to disrupt their progression in today’s world. “ When it comes to historical collapses, five groups of interacting factors have been especially important: the damage that people have inflicted on their environment; climate change; enemies; changes in friendly trading partners; and the society’s political, economic and social responses to these shifts. “

Get Access