“Upheaval” by Jared Diamond [Book Review]

Out of the mind of the master comes “Upheaval” by Jared Diamond. Scintillating, didactic, and eminently practical, this book observes the historical record by subjecting them to both historical and psychological scrutiny.

How does one apply the psychology of individuals to nations? Well, that’s the marvel of “Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations In Crisis.” Jared Diamond is the author of the epic “Guns, Germs, and Steel” (1999) as well as another book of his of more recent vintage entitled “The World Until Yesterday” (2012).

STAR RATINGS:

“UPHEAVAL” by Jared Diamond BOOK STATS:

• Published 2019
• 502 total pages
• 465 pages of text
• 11 chapters
• Two 8-page color picture insets
• 1 Further Readings section
• 1 Index section
• Hardcover only

“UPHEAVAL” by Jared Diamond BOOK REVIEW:

Jared Diamond unleashes his uncanny intellect in his 2019 offering “Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations In Crisis” which offers a very interesting proposition: that the psychology of individuals can also be applied to the psychology of nations in crisis.

The key word here is CRISIS. “Upheaval” is about nations in crisis mode and the ways that they have dealt with national problems, either successfully or unsuccessfully. Diamond offers seven examples. From Finland to Japan to Australia, he even includes multiple references to Lithuania and the Baltics.

The book would have been better titled CRISIS because that’s actually what his thesis rests upon and is driven by: crisis management. The term “upheaval” hardly appears.

In fact, the very goal of this book seems to be about giving people (individuals) the ability to take lessons of successful national crisis management and apply those to their own personal crises through the use of clinical rubriks.

That interpretation is from Diamond’s own writing.

Hence we expect some relationships between how individuals cope with individual problems, and how nations composed of many individuals cope with national problems.

Diamond 2019: 48

Diamond spends the first two chapters, as well as his Prologue, outlining and explaining crisis management theory, all the way up to page 54. It’s as if we are sitting in one of his college lectures – to be fair, he does disclaim that his style of writing is that of a discursive college lecture.

Forming the backbone of the rest of the book, Diamond relies heavily upon his “12 factors to the outcome of crises,” both for individuals and nations and draws heavily upon those standards as the acid test to which he applies either success or failure.

If individuals are deemed to have a measure of success in crisis management, so should nations. According to “Upheaval” it’s all clinically scientific. Well, sort of.

Although I don’t agree with author Jared Diamond on the construction of a few of his historical arguments, after reading this book it is my opinion that his overarching theory and conclusions are indeed groundbreaking.

The best part about this book I have to say is that it is not just for the historian, neither is it just for some hothead searching for an opportunity to find malfeasance in our modern political system. Its eloquence is in its utility: as a guidepost for individuals to learn about themselves in crisis through practical steps while at the same time learning from collectives of individuals in crisis, and vice versa.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Diamond, Jared. 2019. Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations In Crisis. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
• ISBN-13: 978-0316409131
• Amazon Link.