Questioning Collapse
Deborah L. Nichols, William J. Bryant 1925 Professor of Anthropology
Topic 

For readers interested in a counter-view on the role of climate change in societal collapses in the past, Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire, edited by P. McAnay and N. Yoffee, offers a series of case studies challenging the theory Jared Diamond poses in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Is societal collapse the most productive framework to understand such changes? You may not agree with Diamond's critics, but his notion that societies choose to fail oversimplies the situation. Some rulers may have made bad decisions with wide ramifications, but, for example, were Maya kings really that powerful?