Reviews

According to Diamond, the survival of a human population is based on relatively few factors, such as environmental fragility (soil, length of growing season, climate), ecological responsibility (planting trees, maintaining fish or livestock populations) and intercultural interactions (war, trade). He presents numerous case studies that demonstrate how unsuccessful cultures have poor scores for many of these attributes whereas successful cultures have higher scores. What ought to make this book interesting are the many descriptions of past and present world cultures. In fact, the selection of examples seems eccentric and the conclusions somewhat forced. Unfortunately, this is also better suited to the print format; the sentences are long, and it is frequently hard for a listener to extract major points out of the surrounding verbiage. Michael Prichard is a fine reader, and he does as well as anyone could with such a text. Many patrons will find listening to this a frustrating experience. Recommended only for large public and academic libraries.-I. Pour-El, Des Moines Area Community Coll., Boone, IA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.