This is the second volume of Galeano's Memory of Fire Trilogy. In the trilogy, Galeano recounts the history of the Western Hemisphere, particularly South and Central America. It is not a straight-forward history, however, although it is well-documented and based on the same source documents a historian would use. Instead, it is presented as a series of short vignettes, each poetically written, each with razor-sharp focus, each insightful.

The first volume, Genesis, which I read late last year, covers the period of pre-history through 1700. It was magnificent, and I gave it 5 stars. I was less entranced with Faces and Masks, which covers the period of time from 1700 to 1900. However, I think this may be due more to the fact that for me the historical period itself is less interesting than that of the earlier book, which covered much of the history of the 'conquistadores' and first European contact with the New World.

I would still recommend this book, but I do think the trilogy should be read in order. I will continue with the final book, which covers from 1900 til present (or 1980 or so when the book was written).

As a side note, for those who read The War at the End of the World, the incident on which that book is based, which took place in the late 19th century at Canudos, is one of the subjects covered in this book. ( )

This is a scary book that must be read.

Diamond takes the first 80% of the book to describe the "issues" that appear to have led to the collapse of societies in the past: 1) environmental change; 2) climate change; 3) hostile neighbors; 4) friendly trade partners; 5) society's response to environmental change. The evidence that these factors contributed to societal decline and collapse (in many cases exceedingly rapid in many cases) is strong and replicated throughout human history.

In the final 100 pages, Diamond considers the evidence that modern society is following our predecessors. The conclusion seems simple and obvious: We (modern western society) is well down the path to collapse. Collapse is not, however, inevitable. If we have the collective and individual intelligence to learn from the past, and change our collective and individual actions, then our society may avoid collapse.

The past decade makes my a pessimistic about our future. ( )

Книга полезная, без сомнения, и интересная, местами. Но такая нудная и растянутая. Как будто диссертация. Очень тяжело читать. Слишком много деталей, без которых можно обойтись, слишком сухой, незамысловатый язык. Не хватает ей художественной огранки. Но прочесть стоит, хотя бы по диагонали. Для общего развития и понимания процессов. ( )

Interesting but got somewhat tedious. The abridged version might have been better for me. ( )

Interesting but got somewhat tedious. The abridged version might have been better for me. ( )