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Upheaval
- Turning Points for Nations in Crisis
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins
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Upheaval
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Summary
A brilliant new theory of how and why some nations recover from trauma and others don't, by the author of the landmark best sellers Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse.
In his earlier best sellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in the final audiobook in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crisis through selective change - a coping mechanism more commonly associated with personal trauma.
In a dazzling comparative study, Diamond shows us how seven countries have survived defining upheavals in the recent past - from US Commodore Perry's arrival in Japan to the Soviet invasion of Finland to Pinochet's regime in Chile - through a process of painful self-appraisal and adaptation, and he identifies patterns in the way that these distinct nations recovered from calamity. Looking ahead to the future, he investigates whether the US and the world are squandering their natural advantages on a path toward political conflict and decline. Or can we still learn from the lessons of the past?
Adding a psychological dimension to the awe-inspiring grasp of history, geography, economics, and anthropology that marks all Diamond's work, Upheaval reveals how both nations and individuals can become more resilient. The result is an audiobook that is epic, urgent, and groundbreaking.
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What listeners say about Upheaval
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- daveo
- 18-09-19
Good content, weird style
This book not as brilliant as his previous books but still interesting and original. The attempt to synthesise personal psychology with culture, history and geography doesn't really work, but it is thought provoking. Big problems with this book are: needs editing for style and length - it's too dense and academic in style for the popular market. And a trily godawful style of presentation, plodding, boring voice. Lots of needless repetition and qualification. Also no concession to audio, "see table 1.1", "at the bottom of the page", dont say "e.g." say for example etc. Are they too scared to edit the great prof Diamond?
3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alexander e
- 25-09-19
Thought provoking
Well presented with very detailed analysis on very unique crises’s experienced by different countries.
Didn’t expect this to provide such interesting information and takes on it
2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Evelyn
- 08-05-20
nice but not too nice
very useful but not as exceptional as I expected. Also everything about data technology and internet is not mentioned
1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Anthony
- 04-07-19
Interesting, but slow and drawn out
Lots of history, but not enough reference back to the book title and topic. Examples seemed to be picked because they fitted the model under discussion, rather than developed or proved it.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 15-11-22
No surprises here
Interesting, clear eyed but personal reflection on a range of countries with some summative insights, but no major revelations. Avuncular admonition to his birth nation the USA, and a warning that will probably get a good ignoring from the audiences that matter.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 17-08-22
Somewhat interesting
The framework described in the book is interesting, and possibly even useful. However chapter 11 is surprisingly myopic.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- aidokel
- 26-03-22
An important listen
Always great to listen to. This is my second Jared Diamond book after Guns, Germs and Steel. Not as revolutionary as that book but hey, not something to beat the man over the head with, is it? Still and all, an important work by an important writer and thinker.
Read with great patience and clarity by Henry Strozier.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Faisal Khesrawi
- 12-01-22
Overall enjoyable book
as usual Jared Diamond can go to long lengths to explain some less important points.
a bit repetitive at certain points.
But overall I enjoyed the book and it is a good follow up to Guns, Germs and Steel.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 02-06-20
Insightful and brilliant
Jared Diamond is a favourite author of mine as this book upholds that. Absolutely recommend!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sasho Bogoevski
- 11-01-20
Outstanding
Diamond continues his brilliant and unique approach at analyzing big topics with tremendous insights and focus.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marian
- 12-05-19
The Urine of the Earth in a Teacup
Please read this book!
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 seated near the tinderbox anger of modern serfs sick of “rags to riches” myths. He tasted the urine of earth, found it sugary, and gives us his best treatment theories in a world still to invent insulin.
Is it dull? 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 informs 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 access to 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.
I repeat: Please read this book, and let’s make the future better.
79 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dan Fusselman
- 07-07-19
Change the Speed
The book is great. The speed of the narrator is too slow. Change the audio speed to 1.25 for a significantly better listening experience.
56 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- J. Thomson
- 28-10-19
Where are the charts and figures for Audible?
There are frequent references to two tables and other figures. Are these accessible to Audible listeners?
51 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tim B
- 17-05-19
Terrible narration, buying it in paper instead
I have never had trouble reading Jared Diamond 's books. This one, has put me to sleep several times already. The narrator is incredibly boring and monotone. Terrible,that Diamond's excellent material gets distorted like this.
46 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- hamishr
- 05-08-19
Interesting but irritating at times
This is an account of the recent history (mainly the last 60 or so years) of countries that Jared Diamond has visited frequently or lived in for an extended period. It is thus takes a subjective approach, based mainly on the the author's personal perspective and the perspectives of the people he came to know in these countries. Why and how countries change is difficult to pin down but the author has tried to do this by assessing each chosen country in terms of a list of change factors. The experiences and perspectives of the author in these countries are interesting but he has taken a highly opinionated approach, which I found irritating, especially when the issues involved are not as clear cut as he makes them out to be. He also tended to digress at times, again quite irritating (the low point: talking about which Australian wines he liked best). I certainly benefitted from listening to this book and, if nothing else, it has inspired me to find out more about these countries in order to gain a broader perspective.
25 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- henry mayo
- 14-05-19
No editor in sight.
After three hours I gave up on expecting any of the ideas that popped into his head to converge into anything coherent. He wanders from his failure at marriage to the joys of speaking Finnish with no regard for any actual narrative thread.
There is no grand 'theory' at work here. This book is nothing like his earlier works.
21 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- John Faithful Hamer
- 25-07-19
THE WISDOM OF AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE
Jared Diamond wrote this book at the ripe old age of 82. You can quibble with his names and dates here and there—forgetfulness sets in sooner or later, alas—but his erudition shines through regardless on every page. Diamond speaks more than ten languages and has lived an extraordinary life. He’s smarter than you. So quit the nitpicking, shut up, and listen to the man. I think you’ll find that he’s remarkably wise.
18 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- YunusTheOptimist
- 04-07-19
Sounds too simplistic basic.
It is astonishing how ignorant the world leaders are. We, the people, we put them there and follow them. Some of these leaders, I would not hire them as employees because they would cause calamitous low moral/trust yielding non productive working environment. With the prism of an learnt man in his 80s, Jared Diamond, in this this book, is shedding light today's populist movements and their soundbite messages, ignorant leaders and their followers who pay the price sometime with their lives.
Diamond’s analysis countries that he knows well:
Finland,
Chile,
Indonesia,
Japan,
Germany
Australia and
The USA
He explains how these countries have coped with crises, is shot through with reflections on the fragility of democracy. It explores the crucial condition of taking responsibility (without scapegoating), honest national self-appraisal, a willingness to learn from other nations and a capacity to compromise, sometimes, indeed, to swallow the unpleasant truth.
A must read
16 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- JD
- 01-12-19
Not sure I get it.
If asked who "my famous author is", I'd likely answer "Jared Diamond" until I read this book. I don't get it. Maybe it was the pressure to publish or just hubris, but I don't get it and I don't care. I read his other books twice each, but didn't finish this. Sorry, but this is just not relevant.
11 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hank
- 09-01-20
Countries in trouble have a common thread
Revealing history of countries that failed to control their own greedy and evil leaders. Brings to mind the old adage, those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it
10 people found this helpful