A radical retelling of human history through collapse - from the dawn of our species to the
urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. ** FEATURED IN THE NEW BBC
SERIES CIVILISATIONS: RISE AND FALL ** ** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ** 'A brilliant
utterly convincing account of the evolution of human society and why we are probably reaching
humanity's end days' HENRY MARSH 'Absolutely essential reading for understanding why past
civilisations collapsed and how to protect our own from the same fate' LEWIS DARTNELL For
the first 300 000 years of human history hunter-gathering Homo sapiens lived in fluid
egalitarian civilizations that thwarted any individual or group from ruling permanently. Then
around 12 000 years ago that began to change. As we reluctantly congregated in the first
farms and cities people began to rely on novel lootable resources like grain and fish for
their daily sustenance. And when more powerful weapons became available small groups began to
seize control of these valuable commodities. This inequality in resources soon tipped over into
inequality in power and we started to adopt more primal hierarchical forms of organization.
Power was concentrated in masters kings pharaohs and emperors (and ideologies were born to
justify their rule). Goliath-like states and empires - with vast bureaucracies and militaries -
carved up and dominated the globe. What brought them down? Whether in the early cities of
Cahokia in North America or Tiwanaku in South America or the sprawling empires of Egypt Rome
and China it was increasing inequality and concentrations of power that hollowed these
Goliaths out before an external shock brought them crashing down. These collapses were written
up as apocalyptic but in truth they were usually a blessing for most of the population. Now
we live in a single global Goliath. Growth obsessed extractive institutions like the fossil
fuel industry big tech and military-industrial complexes rule our world and produce new ways
of annihilating our species from climate change to nuclear war. Our systems are now so fast
complex and interconnected that a future collapse will likely be global swift and
irreversible. All of us now face a choice: we must learn to democratically control Goliath or
the next collapse may be our last. 'An excellent survey of human history through the
collapses of Goliath-like kings states and empires' OBSERVER 'A comprehensive overview of
societal collapse based on the analysis of dozens of cases spanning thousands of years from
the Paleolithic to today. Highly recommended' PETER TURCHIN 'A deeply sobering and strangely
inspiring history of how societies collapse - and how we can still save ours. Read it now or
your descendants will find it in the ruins' JOHANN HARI 'Like reading Thomas Piketty
filtered through Mad Max' NEW YORK TIMES
