{"product_id":"goliaths-curse-the-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse","title":"Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"In the modern tradition of Big Books of human history like Yuval Noah Harari's \u003ci\u003eSapiens\u003c\/i\u003e and David Graeber and David Wengrow's \u003ci\u003eThe Dawn of Everything\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGoliath's Curse\u003c\/i\u003e provides a novel theory of civilizational development. . . . [It] feels something like reading the French economist Thomas Piketty filtered through \u003ci\u003eMad Max: Fury Road\u003c\/i\u003e.\" --Ed Simon, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY \u003ci\u003eTHE CONVERSATION \u003c\/i\u003eAND \u003ci\u003eKIRKUS \u003c\/i\u003e- A \u003ci\u003eNEXT BIG IDEA CLUB'S \u003c\/i\u003eMUST-READ BOOK - \u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER - A radical retelling of human history through the cycle of societal collapse\u003cbr\u003e\"Deeply sobering and strangely inspiring. . . . Read it now, or your descendants will find it in the ruins.\" --Johann Hari, author of \u003ci\u003eStolen Focus\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eGoliath's Curse\u003c\/i\u003e, Cambridge scholar Luke Kemp conducts a historical autopsy on our species, from the earliest cities to the collapse of modern states like Somalia. He traces the emergence of \"Goliaths\" large societies built on a collection of hierarchies that are also terrifyingly fragile, collapsing time after time across the world. Drawing on historical databases and the latest discoveries in archaeology and anthropology, he uncovers groundbreaking revelations: \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMore democratic societies tend to be more resilient.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIn our modern, global Goliath, a collapse is likely to be long-lasting and more dire than ever before.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCollapse may be invisible until after it has occurred. It's possible we're living through one now.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCollapse has often had a more positive outcome for the general population than for the 1%.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAll Goliaths contain the seeds of their own demise.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs useful for finding a way forward as it is for diagnosing our precarious present, \u003ci\u003eGoliath's Curse \u003c\/i\u003eis a stark reminder that there are both bright and dark sides to societal collapse--that it is not necessarily a reversion to chaos or a dark age--and that making a more resilient world may well mean making a more just one.","brand":"Knopf Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51984225861863,"sku":"9780593321355","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0449\/4075\/5096\/files\/imageloader_0acea319-c050-451e-a663-7a0b0e77b5ff.jpg?v=1776314631","url":"https:\/\/arvidabookco.com\/products\/goliaths-curse-the-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse","provider":"Arvida Book Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}