As our society confronts the impacts of globalization and global systemic risks―such as financial contagion, climate change, and epidemics―what can studies of the past tell us about our present and future? How Worlds Collapse offers case studies of societies that either collapsed or overcame cataclysmic adversity. The authors in this volume find commonalities between past civilizations and our current society, tracing patterns, strategies, and early warning signs that can inform decision-making today. While today’s world presents unique challenges, many mechanisms, dynamics, and fundamental challenges to the foundations of civilization have been consistent throughout history―highlighting essential lessons for the future.
Author(s): Miguel Centeno, Peter Callahan, Paul Larcey, Thayer Patterson
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 441
City: New York
Cover
Endorsement Page
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgement
Authors
Introduction
Section 1 Theory and Insights of Historical Collapse
Chapter 1 Globalization and Fragility: A Systems Approach to Collapse
Chapter 2 How Scholars Explain Collapse
Chapter 3 Diminishing Returns on Extraction: How Inequality and Extractive Hierarchy Create Fragility
Chapter 4 Collapse, Recovery, and Existential Risk
Section 2 Historical and Archaeology Investigations of Collapse
Chapter 5 “Mind the Gap”: The 1177 BCE Late Bronze Age Collapse and Some Preliminary Thoughts on Its Immediate Aftermath
Chapter 6 The End of “Peak Empire”: The Collapse of the Roman, Han, and Jin Empires
Chapter 7 Collapse and Non-collapse: The Case of Byzantium ca. 650–800 CE
Chapter 8 Fluctuat Nec Mergitur: Seven Centuries of Pueblo Crisis and Resilience
Chapter 9 Episodes of the Feathered Serpent: Aztec Imperialism and Collapse
Chapter 10 The Black Death: Collapse, Resilience, and Transformation
Chapter 11 The Cases of Novgorod and Muscovy: Using Systems Thinking to Understand Historical Civilizational Response to Exogenous Threats
Chapter 12 Resilience of the Simple?: Lessons from the Blockade of Leningrad
Section 3 Systemic Collapse Insights from Ecology, Climate, and the Environment
Chapter 13 Climate Change and Tipping Points in Historical Collapse
Chapter 14 Conservation of Fragility and the Collapse of Social Orders
Chapter 15 Resilience and Collapse in Bee Societies and Communities
Section 4 Future Systemic Collapse and Quantitative Modeling
Chapter 16 Producing Collapse: Nuclear Weapons as Preparation to End Civilization
Chapter 17 From Wild West to Mad Max: Transition in Civilizations
Chapter 18 Phase Transitions and the Theory of Early Warning Indicators for Critical Transitions
Chapter 19 The Lifespan of Civilizations: Do Societies “Age,” or Is Collapse Just Bad Luck?
Chapter 20 Multipath Forecasting: The Aftermath of the 2020 American Crisis
Index
