![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Review: The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter (1988)
I will be completely honest with you guys, this is one of those books that I mostly skimmed (as opposed to read), so this is going to be one of those low-quality reviews as I can't really comment too much on the quality of the arguments.
I'd heard about this book after reading Jared Diamond's Collapse. I think that Tainter's collapse was more dry, and was probably more of an academic paper, whereas Diamond's Collapse was more of a book that I could enjoy.
Format
In the first part of the book, Tainter covered several historical complex societies, and described reasons as to why they came about their collapse. These reasons were up to a couple of paragraphs, so rather short. I found this method of presentation to be kind of disappointing. It was probably a good way to communicate information, but I felt like I was reading an info dump as opposed to an actual book.
Around half way through the book, Tainter switched gears to focus on the economics of why societies collapsed.
In the next chapter, Tainter did a deeper dive, but at that point, I was already kind of disenchanted with the book.
In the final portion, Tainter did discuss some implications of his findings, and how they could apply to the future. I thought this would've been an interesting discussion, but it was pretty short, and as mentioned, I'd already lost interest in Tainter's writing.
Writing
The way I would describe the writing was that it was very dry. What I liked about Jared Diamond's writing was that he gave enough information for the readers to be able to imagine the society that they were studying. This could come in the form of historical events, description of surroundings, or even Diamond's own anecdotes, of which he had an interesting selection due to his background in science. This aspect was very noticeably missing from Tainter's book, and it became difficult to feel invested in reading about the various societies' collapses.
The actual prose that was written by Tainter also felt very academic. I don't doubt that it would've been appropriate for a research paper, but as an average reader, it did not draw me into the book.
Content
As I mentioned, for the first half of the book, Tainter did a run down of several societies. He only did deep dives into individual societies in chapter 5, which was disappointing. Personally, I was looking for more comprehensive studies into individual societies, whereas it seemed that Tainter was more focused on the analytical aspect, and only presented information about societies if it specifically related to the point he was trying to make.
I won't say whether this approach was good or bad, as I can see why his approach would be effective for a more specific question, but for someone who was looking for an interesting read, deeper dives into fewer societies would've interested me more.
Overall
I'd only started reading this because I had nothing on my reading list. I think it might be interesting to those who are looking for direct answers to the question of "Why do societies collapse?"
Personally, I preferred Diamond's approach to these very open-ended questions. Diamond's Collapse did streamline at the end, suggesting that environmental issues were the main cause of most societal collapses. I don't totally agree with that as I do believe economic and social reasons have a deep impact as well. However, the way that arguments were presented were far more interesting in Diamond's book. He presented his case studies in a more consistent format, and it was easy for me as a reader to follow.
If someone asked me whether to read this book, I would probably recommend them to read Diamond's book instead, even if the conclusion he came to was a little more sensationalized than Tainter's.
I'd heard about this book after reading Jared Diamond's Collapse. I think that Tainter's collapse was more dry, and was probably more of an academic paper, whereas Diamond's Collapse was more of a book that I could enjoy.
Format
In the first part of the book, Tainter covered several historical complex societies, and described reasons as to why they came about their collapse. These reasons were up to a couple of paragraphs, so rather short. I found this method of presentation to be kind of disappointing. It was probably a good way to communicate information, but I felt like I was reading an info dump as opposed to an actual book.
Around half way through the book, Tainter switched gears to focus on the economics of why societies collapsed.
In the next chapter, Tainter did a deeper dive, but at that point, I was already kind of disenchanted with the book.
In the final portion, Tainter did discuss some implications of his findings, and how they could apply to the future. I thought this would've been an interesting discussion, but it was pretty short, and as mentioned, I'd already lost interest in Tainter's writing.
Writing
The way I would describe the writing was that it was very dry. What I liked about Jared Diamond's writing was that he gave enough information for the readers to be able to imagine the society that they were studying. This could come in the form of historical events, description of surroundings, or even Diamond's own anecdotes, of which he had an interesting selection due to his background in science. This aspect was very noticeably missing from Tainter's book, and it became difficult to feel invested in reading about the various societies' collapses.
The actual prose that was written by Tainter also felt very academic. I don't doubt that it would've been appropriate for a research paper, but as an average reader, it did not draw me into the book.
Content
As I mentioned, for the first half of the book, Tainter did a run down of several societies. He only did deep dives into individual societies in chapter 5, which was disappointing. Personally, I was looking for more comprehensive studies into individual societies, whereas it seemed that Tainter was more focused on the analytical aspect, and only presented information about societies if it specifically related to the point he was trying to make.
I won't say whether this approach was good or bad, as I can see why his approach would be effective for a more specific question, but for someone who was looking for an interesting read, deeper dives into fewer societies would've interested me more.
Overall
I'd only started reading this because I had nothing on my reading list. I think it might be interesting to those who are looking for direct answers to the question of "Why do societies collapse?"
Personally, I preferred Diamond's approach to these very open-ended questions. Diamond's Collapse did streamline at the end, suggesting that environmental issues were the main cause of most societal collapses. I don't totally agree with that as I do believe economic and social reasons have a deep impact as well. However, the way that arguments were presented were far more interesting in Diamond's book. He presented his case studies in a more consistent format, and it was easy for me as a reader to follow.
If someone asked me whether to read this book, I would probably recommend them to read Diamond's book instead, even if the conclusion he came to was a little more sensationalized than Tainter's.