Three World Wars

[Charles Martel]

by Jared Diamond, Viking Penguin, 2005.

Diamond's the one who wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning "Guns, Germs ans Steel". It dealt w/ why certain societies like the Europeans and Asians were able to reach cultural prominence and why others (e.g. Africans and Pre-Columbian Americans) weren't.

This time he deals w/ why some technologically and socially developed societies fail and others succeed. He deals with the failure of the Greenland Norse and the success of the Tokugawa Japanese. He deals with the possible failure of rural Western U.S. society and the probable failure of Australia and China.

He essentially ties it to rapid and near complete deforestation of marginally productive land. That in turn leads to erosion and the loss of agricultural productivity through increased salination levels. This, coupled w/ destructive mining practices and the introduction of plant and animal pest species, leaves a land that can't grow crops for about +/- 500 years.

The bottom line is that you end up with land that can't feed its population base. That leads to a reduced standard of living and the ultimate collapse of that particular society.

Diamond seems to reiterate Arnold Toynbee's adage that “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."
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Quemadmoeum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.

[ananda]

Another book you might like based around the same topic is

The short history of progress by Ronald Wright

It outlines the failure or near failure of various civilisations (Sumer, Maya, Rome, Easter Island) an then goes on to discuss the future of civilisation.

It is only a short book but it is concise, clear, well structured and well referenced.
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Laughter is the language of the gods

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."