Editing Jared Diamond (section)

=== ''Collapse'' (2005) ===
Diamond's next book, ''[[Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed]]'', published in 2005, examines a range of past societies in an attempt to identify why they either collapsed or continued to thrive and considers what contemporary societies can learn from these historical examples. As in ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'', he argues against explanations for the failure of past societies based primarily on cultural factors, instead focusing on ecology. Among the societies mentioned in the book are the [[Norse colonization of the Americas|Norse]] and [[Inuit]] of [[Greenland]], the [[Maya civilization|Maya]], the [[Anasazi]], the indigenous people of [[Rapa Nui]] (Easter Island), Japan, Haiti, the [[Dominican Republic]], and modern [[Montana]].

The book concludes by asking why some societies make disastrous decisions, how big businesses affect the environment, what our principal environmental problems are today, and what individuals can do about those problems. Like ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'', ''Collapse'' was translated into dozens of languages, became an international best-seller, and was the basis of a television documentary produced by the National Geographic Society.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2005 |title=Perspectives on Diamond's ''Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed'' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/497663 |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=46 |issue=S5 |pages=S91–S99 |doi=10.1086/497663 |jstor=10.1086/497663 |issn=0011-3204}}</ref> ''Collapse'' was also nominated for the [[Royal Society Prize for Science Books]].<ref name=rsocprizes/> When it was nominated, Diamond was the only author to have won the award twice previously,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pauli |first=Michelle |date=2006-04-13 |title=Diamond in the running for Aventis hat-trick |language=en-GB |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2006/apr/13/awardsandprizes.scienceandnature |access-date=2023-09-30 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> though he did not win a third time.

Fifteen archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and historians from the [[American Anthropological Association]] criticized Diamond's methods and conclusions, working together with the larger association to publish the book ''[[Questioning Collapse]]'' as a counter to Diamond's claims.<ref name="Flexner">{{cite journal |last1=Flexner |first1=James L. |date=December 2011 |title=Asia General, Book Reviews: QUESTIONING COLLAPSE: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire |url=https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/questioning-collapse-human-resilience-ecological-vulnerability-and-the-aftermath-of-empire-edited-by-patricia-a-mcanany-and-norman-yoffee/ |journal=[[Pacific Affairs]] |volume=84 |issue=4 |pages=740 |access-date=September 3, 2022}}</ref> In response, Diamond, as an editor at the time for the journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', published an official review in the journal negatively covering the book,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Diamond |first1=Jared |author-link=Jared Diamond |date=February 2010 |title=Two views of collapse |journal=Nature |volume=463 |issue=7283 |pages=880–881 |bibcode=2010Natur.463..880D |doi=10.1038/463880a |s2cid=41340630 |doi-access=free}}</ref> without mentioning that the book was a critique of his own work. The authors and the publisher, [[Cambridge University Press]], called out Diamond for his [[conflict of interest]] on the subject.<ref>{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=March 8, 2010 |title=Puttin' the Objective in Objectivity |url=http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2010/03/puttin-the-objective-in-objectivity/ |access-date=September 4, 2022 |website=Fifteen Eighty Four |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imediaethics.org/cambridge-u-press-backs-authors-against-jared-diamonds-nature-review/ |title=Cambridge U Press backs authors against Jared Diamond's Nature review |last=Smith |first=Sydney |date=March 23, 2010 |website=iMediaEthics |access-date=September 4, 2022}}</ref>

[[File:Jared diamond.jpg|thumb|right|Jared Diamond in 2007]]