With regards to Collapse: Err, really? A fair number of Diamond's points are outright false; for example, his timing of the colonization or (and therefore the arrival of rats to) Easter Island is completely wrong- and, if I recall correctly (it's been a few years since I read Collapse), Diamond explicitly pointed out that the age of the (single, unique) site he was relying on to date the arrival was in question, before dismissing the critics without an argument.