This is a book that demands a Chinese translation. Collapse by Jared Diamond is a very important book indeed, and given the ongoing debate in China about a new 'environmentally-minded' growth policy, it will have real resonance for senior decision makers in the world's most populous country.
Many people will be familiar with Diamond's last book, Guns, Germs and Steel, which was one of the most successful popular-science books of the last decade. That book sought to explain why some societies had evolved faster than others. The polymathic Diamond wrote an incisive analysis that debunked ideas of racial inferiority, and instead explained development over the last 20,000 years in terms of...
