Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond | Goodreads

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Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis

by
Jared Diamond
4.04 · Rating details · 83 ratings · 22 reviews
A "riveting and illuminating" (Yuval Noah Harari) new theory of how and why some nations recover from trauma and others don't, by the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of the landmark bestsellers Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse.

In his international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in his third book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crises while adopting selective changes -- a coping mechanism more commonly associated with individuals recovering from personal crises.

Diamond compares how six countries have survived recent upheavals -- ranging from the forced opening of Japan by U.S. Commodore Perry's fleet, to the Soviet Union's attack on Finland, to a murderous coup or countercoup in Chile and Indonesia, to the transformations of Germany and Austria after World War Two. Because Diamond has lived and spoken the language in five of these six countries, he can present gut-wrenching histories experienced firsthand. These nations coped, to varying degrees, through mechanisms such as acknowledgment of responsibility, painfully honest self-appraisal, and learning from models of other nations. Looking to the future, Diamond examines whether the United States, Japan, and the whole world are successfully coping with the grave crises they currently face. Can we learn from lessons of the past?

Adding a psychological dimension to the in-depth history, geography, biology, and anthropology that mark all of Diamond's books, Upheaval reveals factors influencing how both whole nations and individual people can respond to big challenges. The result is a book epic in scope, but also his most personal book yet. (less)

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Hardcover, 512 pages
Published May 7th 2019 by Little, Brown and Company
ISBN
0316409138 (ISBN13: 9780316409131)




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Mar 03, 2019Jeffrey Keeten rated it it was amazing
Shelves: anthropology, nonfiction, science, the-japanese, finland, indonesia, australia,germans
”An example of presumed lack of models is provided by the U.S. today, for which belief in American exceptionalism translates into the widespread belief that the U.S. has nothing to learn from Canada and Western European democracies: not even from their solutions to issues that arise for every country, such as health care, education, immigration, prisons, and security in old age--issues about which most Americans are dissatisfied with our American solutions but still refuse to learn from Canadian or Western European solutions.”

It has been a source of frustration for me that Americans have developed so many prejudices against Europe and even their North American partnerships. We do so believe in our exceptionalism that we refuse to recognize that someone else somewhere else knows how to do something better than we do. When I read about the Roman Empire, one of their strengths, that always impressed me and helped them become the most powerful nation the world has ever seen, until the United States, was their ability to recognize and assimilate good ideas from other cultures. They assimilated the very best from every culture they encountered.

As Jared Diamond points out, look at how many of the United States’ winners of Nobel Prizes were immigrants or first generation descendents from immigrants. The US may have provided the catalyst for those exceptional people to reach their full potential, but the synergy of bringing people together from different cultures,with different eyes, with different experiences, leads to amazing breakthroughs in science, economics, literature, art, etc. So is American exceptionalism really based on American ingenuity, or is it based upon the synergy of all those fatherlands/motherlands contributing to the melting pot of what makes us Americans?

What are immigrants good for? Well, it seems to me like they are essential in keeping America exceptional.

What Diamond is doing in this book is encouraging all of us to expand our view of the world and see the exceptionalism and the miscalculations that have occurred around the world in moments of crisis. He has selected 7 nations for which he has developed a particular fondness, and all of them are places he has spent a significant amount of time visiting or living in. The seven finalists for the Diamond round of analysis are Finland, Japan, Chile, Indonesia, Germany, Australia, and the United States.

I am surprised that he did not include an African country. He does talk about the population explosion in Kenya, 4% growth, but he uses it in such a way that changes my perception of how to analyze population growth. Yes, of course, it is in the best interest of Kenya to lower their reproductive rates. There are currently 50 million Kenyans and 330 million Americans. Guess how many Kenyans it takes to equal the consumption of ONE American.

32

Thank goodness, the population growth of the US is nearly flat because, really, how many more Americans can we afford? For that matter, the ratio is way skewed between any first world country and any country in Africa. I feel that lowering our footprint is a duty for all of us.

The goal of the book is to analyze these countries at moments of crisis and weigh the successfulness of the decisions that were made to attempt to avert disaster.

I am pleasantly surprised that Diamond chose Finland because I know next to nothing about the history of Finland and certainly had no clear understanding of the complicated relationship they have had with Russia. In 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland. There is a strip of land between Russia and Finland that has geographical significance for both countries. Interestingly enough, Finland had alliances with Britain, France, and Sweden and fully hoped those nations would come to their aid.

They did not.

It was a true David and Goliath situation. The population of Finland was 3,700,000, compared to the Soviet Union’s 170 million. Now the allies were busy with a war with Germany, but still you have to think that they were looking at the mismatch of that situation and realizing that the war was over before it ever began.

They were wrong.

The Soviets threw everything at the Finns. They had modern tanks, planes, and artillery, which were nearly nonexistent for the Finns. They had 500,000 troops to use as just the first wave. It should have been over before it ever began.

One of the Finnish secret weapons turned out to be skis.

The Finns brought the Soviet advance to a screeching halt with courage, ingenuity, and superb leadership. I’d love to tell you more about how they accomplished it, but you really need to read the Diamond assessment. I will say, equally impressive has been the way that Finland has positioned itself between the West and the Russians to make it more advantageous for the Russians to let them continue to exist as a sovereign nation, rather than attempting once again to conquer and control them.

Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Edo Bay in 1853, changing the trajectory of Japanese history forever. As Diamond weighs the evolution of Japan in world events, you will see that they had moments of brilliant decision making and some very bad ones when hubris outweighed intellect.

A coup in Chile, in 1973, led to the systematic murder of thousands of leftist leaning Chileans. Augusto Pinochet, the mild mannered, religious, psychopath who orchestrated this coup, stayed in power, of some sort, clear up to 2002. He was never prosecuted for his crimes. In fact, the Chilean economy eventually prospered because of some of the decisions he made as dictator. Diamond will sort through the blood and economic boom to analyze the Pinochet decisions that worked and those that led to genocide.

Diamond discusses the particularly unique issues that happen when a country is an island nation, like Indonesia. How do you coalesce all these isolated island cultures into one sense of nationality?

There is a lot to unpack in the recent history of Germany, and Diamond breaks down the disasters, as well as the moments of resilience, that have led Germany back to the forefront of successful nations.

I’ve always heard that Australia is desperate to increase its population. Diamond breaks down the benefits and potential pitfalls of a liberal immigration policy to increase population. When you look at the successes of small nations, like Finland, who enjoy a very high standard of living from the top to the bottom of their societies, is a larger population really the key to greater productivity?

Of course, Diamond devotes the most chapters to the United States. There are still a lot of wonderful things about being an American, and Diamond is unexpectedly hopeful that the US will begin to focus on the more important problems facing Americans, such as health care, education, our outrageously large prison system, immigration, and shoring up a system to insure comfortable retirements for our elderly. Solutions are all within our grasp, and many of them already exist with other friendly nations abroad, and even some solutions might rest with those nations right on our own doorstep. I do want us to, in fact, think more like the Romans and recognize good ideas wherever they might blossom into existence and not be afraid to apply them for the greater good of our society simply because they originated elsewhere. We need to embrace the fact that our exceptionalism isn’t the definition of being an American, but that we are an immigrant nation that provides a haven for exceptionalism from all over the world.

You may not always agree with Diamond. Believe me, he is used to dissenting opinions. He even discusses the lack of manners and civil discourse, especially online, that might eventually prove as detrimental to our society as anything else we face. It is hard to reach reasonable conclusions when you presume the people who disagree with you are inherently evil. Diamond, as always, gives me much to ponder. Highly Recommended!

I would like to thank Little, Brown for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visithttp://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten (less)
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Apr 04, 2019David Wineberg rated it really liked it
Diamond in the Rough

Albert Einstein spent the last half of his life trying to fit the universe into one elegant formula. He did not succeed. Jared Diamond is trying to do the same with national political crises in Upheaval. He has developed a list of 12 factors that show up in times of crisis at the nation level. The degree to which the nation deals with those factors (if at all) determines how successful it will likely be in dealing with it.

The book exists at three levels: the individual, the nation and the world. The factors relating to their crises can be quite similar. The bulk of the book is on seven countries Diamond has had relationships with, having lived and/or worked in them. They are Indonesia, Japan, Germany, USA, Australia, Chile and Finland. They’re all different, and they all handled their crises differently. Some are still in crisis.

A crisis is a serious challenge that cannot be solved by existing methods of coping, Diamond says. The examples include foreign invasion, internal revolution, evolving past previous bad policy, externalizing problems, and denial of problems.

As for the US, Diamond sees it entering a crisis of identity and survival, riven by self-centered Americans who only care about themselves and today – right up to the top. Perspective, reflection and especially co-operation and compromise are absent from this crisis.

These are Diamond’s 12 factors for national crises:
1. National consensus that one’s nation is in crisis
2. Acceptance of national responsibility to do something
3. Building fence, to delineate the national problems needing to be solved
4. Getting material and financial help from other nations
5. Using other nations as models of how to solve the problems
6. National identity
7. Honest national self-appraisal
8. Historical experience of previous national crises
9. Dealing with national failure
10. Situation-specific national flexibility
11. National core values
12. Freedom from geopolitical constraints

The Chinese word weiji means crisis. It component characters are wei for danger and ji for opportunity. As in many clouds have silver linings. The example he gives first is Finland’s stunningly rapid industrialization when faced with $300M in war reparations after negotiating peace with the invading Soviet Union. Finland only had four million people at the time.

Things get dicier at the global level. Looking forward to potential crises like nuclear winter and climate change, Diamond’s model shows the nations of the world, and in particular the USA, are not set, ready or equipped to make the efforts the model stipulates to come out the other side of the crisis decently.

The structure of the book is standardized: a lot of history, some insight from personal relationships, and how the historical crisis fits the parameters Diamond set out. Mostly, it’s a lot of international history; interesting, and probably new to most readers. By far the best chapter is the epilogue, where he tackles the real issues: do national leaders make a difference in crises, and do nations need a crisis to act, or can they anticipate. The answers are sometimes to all the questions.

Diamond has created an interesting matrix for future study, but its application to the real world remains a question mark. It was a good exercise, but of indeterminate value.

David Wineberg (less)
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Jan 28, 2019Megan Bell rated it it was amazing
Shelves: 2019
In this follow-up to Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond shows how nations have overcome crises through methods individuals often practice in overcoming personal trauma. Through his historical study of Finland, Meiji Japan, Chile, Indonesia, Germany, and Australia and his examination of current crises facing Japan, the US, and the world, Diamond reveals how certain factors like honest self-appraisal and dealing with national failure can help predict resilience. This is a fascinating and informative read that gave me a new perspective on the crises facing our country and our world today. Thank you to Little, Brown for the advance reading copy! (less)
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Feb 27, 2019Stephen Yoder rated it it was amazing
Shelves: first-read
Jared Diamond's framework for this book (Mapping the factors for individuals to successfully surmount personal crises to the greater context of nations successfully navigating crises) strikes me as a simple, brilliant move. For all the talk of needing more STEM education in our nation we need a few more million social workers to guide us all through the honest appraisal of our shortcomings & strengths so our nation can move past so many simultaneous crises.
Reading about how Japan, Finland, Germany, Chile, Indonesia, and Australia dealt with their modern upheavals made me worry more about the United States of America, which Diamond addresses toward the end of his book. Do we still have what it takes to resolve incredible challenges? Can we leave behind so many damaging cultural myths that hold us back & divide us unnecessarily? Will the wealthy come to their senses soon enough to allow other groups in our nation to actually receive the benefits of our government & somewhat-strong economy?
Diamond mentions that heads of state have read his previous books and discussed them with him. I can see that Bill Gates has this book on his To Read list (Hey, Bill! I'm using a Windows OS now and it doesn't stink.). I can only hope that more elites will take the time to read Upheaval. My own children's future may depend upon it.
A few more thoughts.
Jared Diamond's travels, interconnections, and abilities with languages (he's way above average in terms of language mastery compared to other Americans) really serve him well.
I've read for years about World War II and heard about how Finland defended itself well against hordes of Russians, but I had never focused upon what they had to do to survive WWII plus stay independent of Russia. I have so much more respect for Finland at this point. I need to read further about this nation & their wacky language.
I wish Diamond had included an African nation in this book.
I never knew about the dramatic changes that swept through Australia in just a few months in 1972 as a result of the UK treating them like a foreign nation (which Australia itself didn't even consider itself to be for many years). I can only hope that the USA can have some dramatic changes in so many important arenas.

Such an important book. I'm grateful I rec'd an ARC.
My apologies that this is a disjointed review.
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May 14, 2019Dan Graser rated it it was amazing
This third work in Jared Diamond's monumental trilogy that began with, "Guns, Germs, and Steel," and, "Collapse," is both an historical analysis of nations' responses before, during, and after going through periods of crises/upheavals, as well as a very impassioned cri de coeur centering on the most fundamental concept of history writing: that being we should learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others to forestall similar and worse outcomes in our own futures. Though opinion has been mixed as to the explanatory power of the previous two volumes, I have found that most critique is based on a complete ignorance of his writing and represents a grossly stultifying simplification that seems to have been made in advance of these critics actual (if ever) reading of his work.

About which he is very frank, the selection process for the representative nations and their upheavals in this book mainly involved the countries with which he has the most experience and where he has lived and spoken the language. These are Chile, Japan, Indonesia, Finland, Germany, Australia, and the United States. The latter, our own country, is discussed as being in a current crisis. He frames the discussion around these nations' periods of crisis with 12 main bullet points:
1. Acknowledgement that one is in a crisis
2. Accept responsibility; avoid victimization, self-pity, and blaming others
3. Building fence/selective change
4. Help from other nations
5. Using other nations as models
6. National identity
7. Honest self-appraisal
8. Historical experience of previous national crises
9. Patience with national failure
10. Situation-specific national flexibility
11. National core values
12. Freedom from geopolitical constraints

Though in a work of this scope and dealing with a representative sample so small, you would expect some of the connections to be tenuous, this is NOT the case with this book. Though it is true that Diamond's analyses of some situations and political upheavals will seem overly terse, the connections he draws throughout the narrative are quite potent and his epilogue wraps up this discussion in cogent fashion. His recommendations for further study are prescient and his tone throughout is personal and erudite, as we have come to expect, but maintains a humility for the scope of analysis he is trying to achieve. (less)
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Apr 19, 2019Rt rated it it was ok
Starting with an analogy to individual crisis, Diamond argues that 12 factors determine how a nation responds to a crisis (mostly successfully; even the authoritarian coups he covers have their good sides, he thinks, especially since it’s unknowable whether you could’ve gotten the good—market-based economic reforms—without the bad, which does not seem like a reason to read history). The book did not cohere very well, but if you want capsule histories of big events in Chile, Japan, Indonesia, Finland, Germany, and Australia, and an overview of global warming and other challenges facing the US/the world, then I guess you could read this. (less)
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May 18, 2019Laura Trombley rated it it was amazing
"Upheaval" begins by defining personal crises and how to best survive, move on, and then thrive after resolution. Looking to successful models for resolution as well as "building a fence" around the problem area, honest self-analysis, retaining what is working and replacing or fixing the problem areas are all needed steps for a successful resolution. He moves on to outline national crises and their resolutions in Meiji Japan, Indonesia, Chile of the Allende/Pinochet era, Germany after WW II, and Finland. He discourses for awhile about the crises that are currently affecting the United States. It's not really Trump. He doesn't go into the president because it's the polarization in American society and the lack of compromise and cooperation that is truly the problem. He wraps up the book with world issues such as climate change an uneven distribution of wealth. The book can get dry at times but is very interesting and has lots of food for thought. The five stars is not because it is the best writing I have ever read but because this book is a must read. (less)
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May 18, 2019Randall Wallace rated it it was ok
This book explains how six countries historically dealt with their own deep crisis and upheaval. Jared believes these six stories will help us solve any present or future U.S crisis or upheaval. He begins in Finland discussing the huge mobilization of Finns (1/6 of the population) and their fierce resistance against the Soviets which won them their freedom while other nearby nations weren’t so lucky. When the Soviets fought the Finns, eight Russians died for one Finn. Finland, Jared says, also won because as a nation they accepted responsibility for themselves. Then Jared moves on to Japan which has evidently has few billionaires. Cool Jeopardy Fact: Britain is only 22 miles from the mainland while Japan is 110 miles from the mainland. Then Jared goes off on a Cold War warrior rant stating how “the Soviet Union embarked on a policy of world domination”. He says there was a “real” risk of the Russians starting a war against the world. LOL – with whose petrol? With whose boots? He talks about the “burden” of the West protecting Western Europe after WWII - never mentioning the 27 million Russians that died during the WWII, the documented exhaustion of its people for military adventures immediately after that, or the overwhelming superiority of American military (as Gore Vidal said, at the time the US was supplying the Russian army their boots, and the Russians didn’t even have the gas to bring home their artillery and so horses had to drag it back). Nor will Jared mention the need of Russia (which unlike the U.S. had been twice recently invaded and millions killed) to need allied buffer nations if only to prevent more future invasions, or the obvious fact that at the same time under Truman, the US embarked on its own same distasteful policy of world domination – i.e. no mention by Jared of the 70 extremely serious interventions by the US Military in other sovereign nations between 1945-2000 (William Blum) – no, instead, only Cuba, Russia, Allende, Sukarno, and Marxism are threats in this book. The CIA would love Jared if he’s not already on company payroll.

Then Jared makes a few snipes at Castro, enough to distract you from the remarkable job of Cuban doctors around the world, or that Cubans seem pretty happy. Selective memory makes Jared rant on about the crimes of Castro while ignoring the crimes of Batista that clearly led to Castro as well as the crime of the continued US embargo, or stealing Cuba’s only other deep-water port (Guantanamo) at gunpoint and not giving it back to force the Cuban government to fail (see Chomsky). Then it’s off to Chile, where Jared wants to muddy the name of Allende so you’ll think his overthrow wasn’t that bad. Jared says Allende ruined the economy and says with a straight face that no one (not even the CIA) knew that Pinochet would be so sadistic. The crimes of Allende, Jared says, are that he “rejected moderation, caution, and compromise”. That the United States itself since its birth has also “rejected moderation, caution, and compromise” hasn’t occurred to Jared. Jared laughably uses intentionally charged words, like how Allende “horrified” the armed forces – picture trained professionals in the art of fighting and resisting all pain “horrified” by a single 5’7” man with grey hair and glasses. Jared says an “acute crisis” in Chile was avoided that was “provoked by Allende’s declared intention to turn Chile into a Marxist state.” That sounds scary. Jared says Allende’s (violent & illegal) overthrow exhibited “flexibility”. Jared says inflation was 600% per year under Allende but plummets down to 9% per year after his removal. Sounds horrible enough, but then of course Jared intentionally won’t tell you most progressives already know: that Nixon famously ordered “Make the economy scream” meaning Chile, which might explain some of that 600% inflation. As Noam Chomsky wrote: “Our ambassador to Chile, Edward Korry, who was a Kennedy liberal type, was given the job of implementing the ‘soft line.’ Here’s how he described his task: ‘to do all within our power to condemn Chile and the Chileans to utmost deprivation and poverty.’ That was the soft line. Later, when the military coup finally came [in September, 1973] and the government was overthrown-and thousands of people were being imprisoned, tortured and slaughtered- the economic aid which had been canceled immediately began to flow again.” Foolishly, Jared laces this entire book with comments that would endear him to Kissinger but would make any educated progressive’s eyes roll.

Then Jared is off to Indonesia to rewrite its bloody history with a take that is, once again, the OPPOSITE of Noam Chomsky. You get page after page of Sukarno’s “crimes” to make the following massacre of half a million by Suharto supporters come out somehow as a wash. JD’s take: Suharto who replaced Sukarno was somehow better in the long run because Indonesian elite locals told him so (just like Chilean elites told him about preferring Pinochet). Jared laughably goes extreme again calling Sukarno’s dropping paratroopers in the woods at night “an incredible act of cruelty”, while the U.S. embassy “standing by” during the entire mass murder of the 500,000 innocent people in Indonesia (New York Times) gets no such designation. To Jared, the massacre happens partly because he says Sukarno “deluded himself” and partly because the Communist Party had called “for the arming of workers and peasants”. No details are given but we are left only to suppose all communists were imminently about to reenact the John Carpenter movie “The Fog” on all regular Indonesians while they were inside eating ramen. According to Jared, Suharto won because he was an “outstanding realist” who knew how to “proceed cautiously”. But in terms of learning from Indonesia, fighting the climate crisis is about acting FAST, not valuing a slow-ass cautious approach which strangely also requires innocent people to be killed en masse. On page 661, he says the American people are flexible because they move, on average, once every five years. I think Jared needs to take a logic class. From that alone, you cannot deduce they must be a flexible people; why is institutional racism and patriarchy (Ohio, Alabama, Georgia, etc.) still so terrible in the U.S. after 200 years? Because of American flexibility?

Then it’s off to Germany where Jared mentions the post-war crimes of the Russians against the Germans and shills for the Cold War by conveniently ignoring the just as bad post-war Allied crimes against the Germans (books on Allied post-war crimes: Crimes and Mercies, by James Bacque, After the Reich: the Brutal History of the Allied Occupation, by Giles MacDonogh, Savage Continent by Keith Lowe, Gruesome Harvest, by Ralph Franklin Keeling, and Other Losses, by James Bacque). Then quick as a flash, Jared is in Australia, mostly to bore us with how crisis and upheaval were somehow dealt with there. Then he tells us he is a director of Conservation International – but isn’t that the NGO that took $10,000,000 from ExxonMobil? (wrongkindofgreen.org). That keeps indigenous off conservation-protected lands in Guyana? (culturalsurvival.org) Sadly, there’s no corporate polluter too dirty for CI. Are we learning about Jared’s values yet? Then Jared says the problem in the US is our “accelerating deterioration of political compromise.” If Jared, had read (Noam recommended) Ornstein and Mann’s work, he would know that the Republican Party is now technically a “radical insurgency” that by definition obstructs compromise. If Jared read Noam as well, he’d know that both parties have drifted so far to the right that Bernie Sanders now occupies the same spot as an Eisenhower Republican did. So when Jared accuses EACH party of becoming more “extreme in its ideology” he doesn’t mean both are moving to the right. He means (without evidence) Democrats are somehow moving left. What? It’s easy to prove both parties have moved far right after the New Deal (read Chomsky). Clinton shoving NAFTA down our throats, and Obama’s targeted assassination campaign and drone terror are not examples of Democrats moving Left – they are examples of Democrats shamelessly courting Republican votes through acts of “compromise”.

Take this single bit: Jared attributes the historical success of the U.S. to “a combination of many advantages: demographic, geographic, political, historical, economic, and social.” That’s it. To Jared, none of America’s great wealth and power comes from theft, slavery, or violence. And after millions of acres of blatant land theft through violence why not also mention slavery which was our other biggest money maker, and maybe what about forcing Mexicans at gunpoint to give up the entire Southwest, and while you are there don’t forget how the California Genocide to get more “free” land made us truly “great”. To inoculate yourself against Jared, also read Gerald Horne, Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Chris Hedges, or even John Perkins). Our economic greatness only came at steep price in human misery for non-whites and was only made possible by a “wetiko” culture (read Derrick Jensen) based on “redemptive violence” (read Richard Slotkin). Then he calls out Islamic Fundamentalism (fomented by the CIA during the Russia/Afghan War) while ignoring U.S. Christian Fundamentalism.

What I liked in this book was that in it Jared says what few on the Left will mention: that a huge part of solving the climate crisis will involve massive energy reduction in the West. Excellent. Then Jared gives us a cool number to know – 32. In the U.S., we use 32x more energy to do everything and consume 32x more stuff than the world’s poor. It was deeply reassuring that Jared is so realistic of the critical importance of deeply decreasing consumption in our U.S. future. And it was great that Jared brings up another thing few on the Left discuss: that the world’s poor would rightfully will have to move up in energy consumption as we in the west finally move down (taught to me by Walden Bello and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz at many International Forum for Globalization Meetings). And happily, on page 367, Jared says that American ‘rags to riches’ is a myth.

Jared only mentions Israel as a victim of a rocket attack, so Zionists can rest easy with this book. Then Jared casts doubt on the power of the UN w/o offering the backstory on the US’s lead role in screwing up the UN from its inception and beyond. Then Jared says one solution for all countries in crisis is to accept responsibility, avoid victimization, self-pity, and blaming others. Last time I checked, America was built on blaming blacks for being lazy, and not accepting responsibility for destroying the land (southern monoculture forcing the move west) or other countries (Laos, Vietnam, Guatemala, etc) and playing the victim to justify forcing a nation westward by preemptively slaughtering “savages” for their land after first blaming them. Today, self-pity and blaming others are the distinguishing marks of millions of US white supremacists who fear one day they will be second class to non-whites. Jared’s next solution is honest self-appraisal: imagine Americans honestly appraising hundreds of years of what was unjustly done to natives and blacks to make money for whites.

Jared is America’s favorite polymath willing to give unchecked US militarism and capitalism a free pass. Jared sees no upcoming risk of economic collapse larger than the Great Depression, or potential extinction. Nor will Jared discuss the elephant in the room: how do you overcome the massive resistance to climate crisis mobilization in the U.S.? To his credit, Jared rightfully worries about Nuclear War and gets kudos for discussing William Perry. But the United States Military carried out 70 interventions in other countries between 1945-2000 (William Blum) yet Jared won’t admit the US military as being ANY part of the problem facing us. Of course, the military, the corporate press, and the business community love Jared because he’ll never threaten their livelihoods. I think this book was written to do two things: to cloud Americans view on the violent removal of Allende in Chile and Sukarno (with the massacre of 500,000) in Indonesia. Instead we are to look at how great Chile and Indonesia are today as economic forces, boldly propping up capitalism for the elites. Jared says this is a book “of comparative studies of national crises”. Too bad he never discusses instead that elephant in the room – generating sufficient U.S. political will against entrenched capitalist resistance - if the U.S. can’t manage basic gun control, or shutting down the latest war on women, then how can it dream of addressing something as big as the climate crisis?
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May 12, 2019Marian rated it it was amazing
Shelves: audible, big-issues-of-life, field-of-dreams, general-history, psychology, science,reviews-2019
Our Daily Bread, The Future, and The Urine of the Earth

Please read this book. The operating system for planet Earth must be reinvented. You are smart. You know that already. Here is a voice with wisdom offering a gift of analysis, concern, and hope. In his life, Diamond tasted the urine of earth and found it sugary. He gives us his best treatment theories in a world still to invent insulin much less the better global operating system.

I remember hearing the term, “Historical Theory” as an undergraduate in the 1980’s, and I wondered how a “factual” subject like history could possibly have a theoretical component. Over time, I learned that our operating theories, our perspectives, our frames, our expectations, and our programming matter more to every human activity than the facts. Facts are important, but authors pick facts selectively, choose words purposefully, and express findings based on internalized models. Every academic discipline has a theory. Every human has an operating system, an internal theory, too.

Here you have metatheory, theory, and eggs of theory essential to human discourse. Jared Diamond is a polymath; he communicates the emotional fight or flight syndrome of the tortured whale swimming in the ocean of human fireworks while his heart beats on the drum of experimental thinking in the manner of Jonas Salk; he links together his conversations with the prejudiced German or Australian with the nose to smell our common survival fears; his touch is not just the handshake of the Lebanese bird watcher, but also that of the economist noticing the flavors of anger of modern serfs who are sick of “rags to riches” myths.

Is it dull, all this theory? Not at all. I did not want to miss a single word. Is it important or relevant, this history book? Absolutely. Diamond’s inner political scientist and inner psychologist inform us of our warts and beauty marks here in the United States within the context of selected global comparisons and contrast. Our leaders, entrepreneurs, monied classes, and citizens must open their hearts, brains, and stomachs to the warnings and potentials provided by Diamond. I want more, Professor. Please continue! Diamond’s discussions of the warts and beauty marks of other countries, such as modern Japan, should be “Eureka” moments for other countries, too. We have only one planet, and, as Diamond points out, we cannot look to the galaxy of other known Earths for ideas.

Diamond’s style is intuitive; almost each time I thought, “but what about xyz?” he soon addressed my concern as if he had anticipated my question. This book is easy to follow, but it is not overly simplistic. Is this a book any academic with a research library could write? Not a chance. Personal experiences and ponderings across decades inform the results. Is the book contrary to academic research? Very few passages seem to cross the line of unsubstantiated opinion or Diamond’s personal bias. Is it a book of solutions? No. It is a book that gifts verbal concepts to test. It is a book that highlights both incremental change and paradigm shift. It is a book about the medicine of sustainability and the “chronic, incurable, hard to cure diseases” of the political man. It is a book about crimes, failures, lessons, guilts, lack of introspection, mistakes, successes, social responsibilities, democracies, stratifications, social liberalisms, sacrifices, survivals, threats, random chances, plans, and our daily bread. Is your urine sugary? We fix the Earth’s diabetes one operating system at a time.

I enjoyed this reading on Audible, but I felt disadvantaged because Audible does not provide access to the charts and tables referenced by Diamond. I will complain to Audible about the need for a pdf companion. If that fails, I will consider buying a companion Kindle version of this book; it is important and essential information. I do not mind investing in two versions of this Diamond book. Please read this book, and let’s make the future better. (less)
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May 18, 2019Jeffrey rated it really liked it
Shelves: anthropology, history
For those of you familiar with Diamond's work, I think you will know in advance whether you will enjoy Upheaval. It is classic Diamond - a well written, narrative on the theme of nations dealing with crises, that eschews a more rigid research for the areas and topics in which one feels Diamond has especially close connections (think his descriptions of Montana inCollapse). The countries and points selected can feel like a bit of a disjointed mismatch - but they are united by Diamond's claim of intimate knowledge, by having lived there, learnt the language or some other personal ties.

But that is not to say that Upheaval is just an anthology of personal anecdotes (although they are present); indeed each chapter is well-researched and accompanied by strong analysis. Though out, Diamond tries to map features of each onto 12 factors (listed in table 1.2). Obviously the mapping is not perfect, indeed history is far too complex to allow all factors to be distilled down to list. But the strength of such a model is that it allows one to have a framework to compare what works. The mapping back to personal crises makes it relatable (although I am wary of the usefulness of such a concept generally - one only needs to look at how damaging post-2008 the comparison national balance sheets to household balance sheets has been). However by and large I think it largely succeeds, and there is much one can learn from this book (as an Australian, I particularly found his perspective on Australia enlightening).

At times the book can be a bit repetitive (more so than Collapse I thought - I think I have heard enough for one lifetime that Finland is a small independent country, with a long border to Russia, not able to count on allies). And I thought there were significant examples that would have been good additions (for example: China, Britain) - but those are well acknowledge and constrained by the selection criteria Diamond has imposed on himself.

In all, its greatest strength is applying the framework to the present crises we face and the suggestions that Diamond urges. In this respect, the 2 chapters on the US are the most powerful - in particular the problems that currently plague US politics. I feel the analysis is not as strong abstracting to global problems - only because the lack of sufficient ties such as a "global identity" that could be called on to address such issues (although they are indeed serious). Despite Diamond's hopes, I hope this book will age well, only because hopefully the concerns he expresses will be addressed. But indeed it is a worthy of your time at present. (less)
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Apr 25, 2019Nathan rated it it was amazing
In an effort to help the reader to be more aware of (mostly negative) impending changes to our planet in the coming decades, Diamond presents several examples from history that illustrate how various countries responded to crises (both internal and external) and carefully lays out what we can mine from these events.

Comparing these trials to a list of factors at the end of each chapter, there's ample opportunity to sum up what you've just been introduced to, and another round in the epilogue to tie it all together. As you'd hope from the author, it resists being an admirable-but-knotted mess of useful info you'd have to just about convert to PDF to better organize.

He'll help you realize that it's not such a grand idea to issue judgment on a country for what they've done, as there are two sides to every story, right? The exposure of the foolish pride of several countries (yep, including the U.S.) and how these qualities point toward certain disaster (though not without the occasional benefit).

You'll hear about Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Chile, Japan (2 times!), and more. Each chapter is enlightening in its own way, sometimes compelling an audible "whoa"; other times, a chill down the spine, as some of these turnouts aren't too pretty, and match up with current governmental trajectories to a closer degree than is comfortable.

I think it's a more informal book than COLLAPSE or GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL, but that's not a problem--it's just a slightly different flavor. I still came out on the other side of this feeling better informed, more in tune with history and the world, and ready to keep on learnin'.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the advance read.
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Mar 31, 2019Sherrie Pilkington rated it it was amazing
Shelves: owned-books, first-reads-winners
***I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway***

If you're a nerd, you probably know Jared Diamond from his super famous book Guns, Germs, and Steel. Great book. This one is written in a similar style, but is focused on nations in crisis (hence the name). The meat of the book is a deep dive into 6 countries at 7 points in history. Jared Diamond goes through their history, culture, and specific situations and then compares how they coped with their crisis according to criteria typically used for evaluating how individuals cope with trauma. It's an interesting comparative study and the metrics he uses are well defined. It was fascinating to dig into each country (especially Finland, which I really really want to learn more about now) and see how the things they could control and those they could not played against each other.

The final few chapters of the book focus on the current United States and the world at large. As an American, I found the analysis of my country in terms of crisis both terrifying and encouraging. The U.S. has a lot of natural and cultural advantages...and our biggest disadvantages are mainly things we can control. The problems facing the world as a whole are much more challenging, in my opinion, since we don't have a framework for coping with global problems. We've never had to do that before.

All in all, I recommend this book to all my nerds. It's a surprisingly cozy read for one that's focused on history, warfare, revolution, and other nasties. (less)
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May 17, 2019Nilesh rated it liked it
Shelves: good-history-etc, good-non-fiction
Upheaval has grand historical narratives but a weak framework. The book’s most vulnerable parts are where the author discusses current affairs (which is nearly half of the book). They appear like any regular person’s views on what is ailing the world with a bunch of broad recommendations without any basis. The remedies offered are not only unoriginal but also without much connections to the lessons drawn in the previous sections.

The book’s best parts are the chapters narrating the tumultuous times in Finland, Chile, Indonesia, and Australia. Each of these is fascinating and absorbing sagas that are hardly ever even mentioned in popular history books. Jared Diamond has a knack of explaining the most complicated real-life events in a storytelling way. One would be hard-pressed to find better eloquent summaries of these countries’ defining events anywhere else.

Japan’s Meiji reformation is also beautifully explained, although the facts are unlikely to be as new as in other sections for most readers. Germany and US chapters contain even fewer novelties.

The author freely admits that his framework is too broad and commonsensical towards the end. The admission does not make the shortcoming disappear though. Unlike in Mr. Diamond’s other works, the insights from the supposedly new theory are extremely few and light.

My rating for the book is an attempt to average out the good and the not. That said, there is a lot here, which is exceptional if one can tolerate the less inspiring sections.
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May 15, 2019Francis Mont rated it it was amazing
Jared Diamond’s new book “Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis” is a badly needed book today when pretty well the whole planet is in a crisis. While his previous book: “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” compared collapses of different civilizations, this one compares seven existing nations to show, with historical examples, how they survived their crisis. What can I say? It’s thoroughly researched, comprehensive and convincing. A New York Magazine interview headline: “Jared Diamond: There’s a 49 Percent Chance the World As We Know It Will End by 2050” informed me about his new book and it sure got my attention.Seehttp://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/0...

I was particularly interested in his chapters on the crisis analysis for the US, as well as for the whole planet. I found his analysis spot on, articulating symptoms we are all familiar with, but would prefer not to think about. Well, once you read this book you can’t help thinking about it anymore because, if you have children: you owe it to them to be aware and support any effort, local or global, that you see fighting for the survival of our planet and your country. The ‘comforting’ thought of “I’ll be dead by then” won’t help the younger generation just growing up and hoping for a future not betrayed by their parents. (less)
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