Winding Down Civilization

Author : David R. Montgomery
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520933168
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Dirt written by David R. Montgomery and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-05-14 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.

Author : Barry Parham
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781535212151
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.52/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Winding Down Civilization written by Barry Parham and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-09-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his ninth collection of commentary, award-winning author and humor columnist Barry Parham continues his good-natured assault on society's odd little angles, toe-stubbing dead-ends, and cultural cul-de-sacs. For over seven years, this popular humorist has been delivering punchline after sucker-punchline via his weekly humor column, the diaTribe. Now, nearly half-a-million words later, Parham is back with another long-awaited bundle of barbs, lobbed observations, and as the author himself points out, ..".not a fact in sight."

Author : Naomi Oreskes
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231537956
Total Pages : 105 pages
Book Rating : 4.57/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Collapse of Western Civilization written by Naomi Oreskes and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The year is 2393, and the world is almost unrecognizable. Clear warnings of climate catastrophe went ignored for decades, leading to soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, widespread drought and—finally—the disaster now known as the Great Collapse of 2093, when the disintegration of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet led to mass migration and a complete reshuffling of the global order. Writing from the Second People's Republic of China on the 300th anniversary of the Great Collapse, a senior scholar presents a gripping and deeply disturbing account of how the children of the Enlightenment—the political and economic elites of the so-called advanced industrial societies—failed to act, and so brought about the collapse of Western civilization. In this haunting, provocative work of science-based fiction, Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway imagine a world devastated by climate change. Dramatizing the science in ways traditional nonfiction cannot, the book reasserts the importance of scientists and the work they do and reveals the self-serving interests of the so called "carbon combustion complex" that have turned the practice of science into political fodder. Based on sound scholarship and yet unafraid to speak boldly, this book provides a welcome moment of clarity amid the cacophony of climate change literature.

Author : Frederick K. Huntington-Vigman
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Winding Down and Selling Out the United States written by Frederick K. Huntington-Vigman and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Eric H. Cline
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691168385
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book 1177 B.C. written by Eric H. Cline and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-22 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold reassessment of what caused the Late Bronze Age collapse In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen? In this major new account of the causes of this "First Dark Ages," Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life the vibrant multicultural world of these great civilizations, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires and globalized peoples of the Late Bronze Age and shows that it was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries. A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, 1177 B.C. sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age—and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece.

Author : Niall Ferguson
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101548029
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.28/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Civilization written by Niall Ferguson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower “A dazzling history of Western ideas.” —The Economist “Mr. Ferguson tells his story with characteristic verve and an eye for the felicitous phrase.” —Wall Street Journal “[W]ritten with vitality and verve . . . a tour de force.” —Boston Globe Western civilization’s rise to global dominance is the single most important historical phenomenon of the past five centuries. How did the West overtake its Eastern rivals? And has the zenith of Western power now passed? Acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson argues that beginning in the fifteenth century, the West developed six powerful new concepts, or “killer applications”—competition, science, the rule of law, modern medicine, consumerism, and the work ethic—that the Rest lacked, allowing it to surge past all other competitors. Yet now, Ferguson shows how the Rest have downloaded the killer apps the West once monopolized, while the West has literally lost faith in itself. Chronicling the rise and fall of empires alongside clashes (and fusions) of civilizations, Civilization: The West and the Rest recasts world history with force and wit. Boldly argued and teeming with memorable characters, this is Ferguson at his very best.

Author : Will Crichton
Publisher : iUniverse
ISBN 13 : 0595248438
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Foundations for a New Civilization written by Will Crichton and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2002-11-05 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: yWill Crichtonys philosophical system offers a fully naturalistic account of experience. It presents an explanation of consciousness and opens the door to a naturalistic theology. This book presents a revolutionary way of thinking about the world starting with structure, change, and tendency as categories encompassing everything in space and time, at all scales and levels of organization. The principle of causality derived from the logical analysis of these categories reveals a transcendent factor in nature. Crichtonys account of ethics and health is derived from the nature of consciousness and individuality. It demonstrates the indispensability of ethics to individual health as well as the economic welfare of a community and its quality of life. Physics has been a halfway house from supernaturalism to naturalismyits ylawsy being supernatural in principle. Crichtonys account of nature includes the findings of modern science, but furnishes a better understanding of elementary reality and nature. It paves the way for a revitalized civilization.y yK. Kaszuba yCrichtonys work furnishes a foundation for a psychology that includes the reality of consciousness on the same foundation as the reality of the body and brain. Natural existence includes both conscious experiences and atoms. The source of consciousness exists in a purely naturalistic, though not entirely material, universe. His system is pregnant with psychological theoriesyy yFrom the Foreword by Carl Semmelroth

Author : Joseph Tainter
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521386739
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.3X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Collapse of Complex Societies written by Joseph Tainter and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dr Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory.

Author : James Suzman
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0525561773
Total Pages : 465 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Work written by James Suzman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is a tour de force." --Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work by leading anthropologist James Suzman Work defines who we are. It determines our status, and dictates how, where, and with whom we spend most of our time. It mediates our self-worth and molds our values. But are we hard-wired to work as hard as we do? Did our Stone Age ancestors also live to work and work to live? And what might a world where work plays a far less important role look like? To answer these questions, James Suzman charts a grand history of "work" from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present, challenging some of our deepest assumptions about who we are. Drawing insights from anthropology, archaeology, evolutionary biology, zoology, physics, and economics, he shows that while we have evolved to find joy, meaning and purpose in work, for most of human history our ancestors worked far less and thought very differently about work than we do now. He demonstrates how our contemporary culture of work has its roots in the agricultural revolution ten thousand years ago. Our sense of what it is to be human was transformed by the transition from foraging to food production, and, later, our migration to cities. Since then, our relationships with one another and with our environments, and even our sense of the passage of time, have not been the same. Arguing that we are in the midst of a similarly transformative point in history, Suzman shows how automation might revolutionize our relationship with work and in doing so usher in a more sustainable and equitable future for our world and ourselves.

Author : Shivaji Lokam
Publisher : Entropy Works LLP
ISBN 13 : 9353006708
Total Pages : 285 pages
Book Rating : 4.09/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Fall of Western Civilization written by Shivaji Lokam and published by Entropy Works LLP. This book was released on 2018-04-19 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can Western civilization stop its decline? The West gave the World the light bulb, the internal combustion engine and much more that vastly improved the life on earth. But lately, the West is tired, hopeless, and dying. Author Shivaji Lokam says Western countries have been in a self-destruction mode for the past hundred years: first the two World Wars, then the Cold War, now the Experts-driven utopian pursuit of Open Borders and Multiculturalism. The unaccountable experts have been wrong more times than anybody can count. They were wrong on financial crisis, bailouts, stagnant wages, higher taxes, brexit, trump, global trade deals. The experts failed because they were part of the problem. This incredible book tells the story of why they get it wrong every time and their pivotal role in causing the irreversible Western decline. In The fall of Western Civilization you will learn: • How Classical Liberalism caused World Wars, Great Depression, Socialism, Fascism, Cold War, and Decolonization • Why Modern Liberalism wants nothing short of the full destruction of the West and its values • Why the West is becoming less free • How America and Europe’s destruction were long sown in the novel ideas that came out of the European Enlightenment two hundred years ago • Why the elites in the West are utterly clueless and how their fancy education never contributed anything positive • What were the ultimate causes of the 2008 Financial Crisis that crippled the western economies Based on extensive research and fresh understanding of economics, Author Shivaji Lokam weaves through the forces of industry, technology, human nature, religion, and nation-state, to tell how and why the West is collapsing. Original and fresh, The fall of Western Civilization is essential reading to understand why Liberalism has been the greatest hoax ever played on the West.