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Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse
A vast and unprecedented survey of societal collapse--stretching from the Bronze Age to the age of silicon--that...
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A vast and unprecedented survey of societal collapse--stretching from the Bronze Age to the age of silicon--that digs through the ruins of fallen societies to understand the root causes of their downfall and the most dire consequences for our future Stepping back to look at our precariously interdependent global society of today--with the threat of nuclear war ever present and the world heating up faster than it did before the Great Permian Extinction, which wiped away 80-90 percent of life on Earth--one couldn't be blamed for asking: Will we make it?
Addressing this question with the seriousness it demands, Cambridge scholar Luke Kemp conducts a historical autopsy that stretches across five millennia, and more than 440 societal lifespans, from the first Egyptian dynasty to the modern-day United Kingdom, using the latest discoveries from archaeology and anthropology to reveal profound and often counterintuitive insights into why exactly societies fail.
While books like Jared Diamond's Collapse zoom in on only a few case studies, Kemp's embrace of a "deep systems" approach, availing himself of the largest dataset possible, allows him to discover the broader trends, and deeper causes, of collapse that pose future risks--without abandoning the gripping historical narratives that bring these pages alive.
Goliath's Curse is 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.
Author: Luke Kemp
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 07/15/2025
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.29lbs
Size: 9.25h x 6.13w x 0.84d
ISBN: 9780593321355
About the Author
LUKE KEMP is a senior research associate at the Notre Dame Institute of Advanced Study, and a research affiliate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) and Darwin College at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on understanding the deep history and future of extreme global risks. Kemp has advised the World Health Organization and multiple international institutions, and his work has been covered by media outlets such as the BBC, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.
Addressing this question with the seriousness it demands, Cambridge scholar Luke Kemp conducts a historical autopsy that stretches across five millennia, and more than 440 societal lifespans, from the first Egyptian dynasty to the modern-day United Kingdom, using the latest discoveries from archaeology and anthropology to reveal profound and often counterintuitive insights into why exactly societies fail.
While books like Jared Diamond's Collapse zoom in on only a few case studies, Kemp's embrace of a "deep systems" approach, availing himself of the largest dataset possible, allows him to discover the broader trends, and deeper causes, of collapse that pose future risks--without abandoning the gripping historical narratives that bring these pages alive.
Goliath's Curse is 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.
Author: Luke Kemp
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 07/15/2025
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.29lbs
Size: 9.25h x 6.13w x 0.84d
ISBN: 9780593321355
About the Author
LUKE KEMP is a senior research associate at the Notre Dame Institute of Advanced Study, and a research affiliate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) and Darwin College at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on understanding the deep history and future of extreme global risks. Kemp has advised the World Health Organization and multiple international institutions, and his work has been covered by media outlets such as the BBC, The New York Times, and The New Yorker.
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