Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Social Collapse




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ClassGraphic In Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse (Alfred A. Knopf, 2025), Cambridge scholar Luke Kemp considers human societies before global climate stabilized enough to permit agriculture, and the rise and collapse of societies after agriculture became possible. Hunter-gatherer societies were generally egalitarian, but later societies generally were not. Drawing on historical databases and on the latest discoveries in archeology and anthropology, Kemp traces the emergence of “Goliaths,” large societies based on hierarchies, whose very structures created vulnerability to collapse—vulnerability that he argues was greater the more unequal and exploitive the society was. Collapse of such societies was sometimes beneficial to their populations and laid the foundation for better societies. Kemp draws on examples from the Bronze Age to today—and from diverse geographies including the Near East, the Americas (both before and after the arrival of Europeans), precolonial Africa, China, Southeast Asia, the Roman Empire, post-Roman Europe, the colonial world, and the more modern world. His account is rich in little-known facts and novel perspectives. Kemp finally examines risks facing our present global society that might lead to its collapse, conditions exacerbating those risks, what remnants might survive a collapse, and how a collapse might be prevented. Join us as we read and discuss these concepts on future societies.
 

Class Details

14 Session(s)
Weekly - Mon

Location
Wieboldt Hall

Instructor
Multiple

Tuition: 

$0.00

Email olli@northwestern.edu for more information. Send to Friend »

Schedule Information

Skip dates: (No class on 05/25/2026)

Date(s) Class Days Times Location Instructor(s)
3/2/2026 - 6/8/2026 Weekly - Mon 09:45 AM - 11:45 AM Chicago, Wieboldt Hall  Map James Smith  ; Bill Barker 

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