Dan Graser's Reviews > Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis

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.