{"product_id":"goliaths-curse-the-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse","title":"Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse","description":"“In the modern tradition of Big Books of human history like Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens and David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything, Goliath’s Curse provides a novel theory of civilizational development. . . . [It] feels something like reading the French economist Thomas Piketty filtered through Mad Max: Fury Road.” —Ed Simon, The New York Times Book Review\n\nNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE CONVERSATION AND KIRKUS • A NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB'S MUST-READ BOOK • SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • A radical retelling of human history through the cycle of societal collapse\n“Deeply sobering and strangely inspiring. . . . Read it now, or your descendants will find it in the ruins.” —Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus\n\nIn Goliath’s Curse, 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:\n\nMore democratic societies tend to be more resilient. In our modern, global Goliath, a collapse is likely to be long-lasting and more dire than ever before. Collapse may be invisible until after it has occurred. It’s possible we’re living through one now. Collapse has often had a more positive outcome for the general population than for the 1%. All Goliaths contain the seeds of their own demise.\nAs useful for finding a way forward as it is for diagnosing our precarious present, 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.\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 0593321359\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: DBV.0593321359.VG\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Very Good\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Kemp, Luke\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: Pages are clean with no markings. May show minor signs of wear or cosmetic defects  marks, cuts, bends, or scuffs  on the cover, spine, pages, or dust jacket. May have remainder marks on edges.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Dream Books Co.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41510744948794,"sku":"DBV.0593321359.VG","price":18.38,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/6011\/0138\/files\/0593321359-0.jpg?v=1783451748","url":"https:\/\/shop.dreambooksco.com\/products\/goliaths-curse-the-history-and-future-of-societal-collapse","provider":"Dream Books Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}