Download or read book Reflections on the Fall of Modern Civilisation written by Francis Vairley and published by New Generation Publishing. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civilisations have come and gone over the past eight thousand years, some lasting longer, others more briefly. Modern Civilisation, launched through the European Enlightenment some three hundred years ago, has been driven increasingly by an obsession with Progress and Development. The harnessing of fossil hydrocarbons drove forward processes of industrialisation, urbanisation and latterly globalisation that are inherently unsustainable. Now that the easily accessible fossil energy resources are approaching a terminal decline, we find ourselves at a fatal juncture, poised to return to a simpler life of modest energy requirements, but threatened also by - possibly catastrophic - environmental damage resulting from modern development. Why do we find ourselves in such an untenable situation? Reflections on the Fall of Modern Civilization analyses why and how this condition came about and suggests how we can reinterpret at a basic level what human life is really all about. This discusses technical means and changes in attitudes and consciousness that might help the emerging generation to transition to a truly sustainable and a deeply satisfying life for all, transcending the problems and conflicts embedded in the very notion of Civilisation. About the Author Born during the Second World War and raised in England, Switzerland and Germany, Francis Vairley has spent much of his life travelling and working in all the world's continents. From the late 1970s, whilst teaching graduate students in urban, regional and environmental planning, he engaged with the Green Movement. Working with many actors from international agencies to local governments and people's organisations he helped to devise environmental and social management programmes and projects, latterly focusing on local economic development in informal economies in Asia and Latin America. Although retired as an academic, Francis continues his work with International Agencies and Transition Initiatives dividing his time with family, friends and communities between homes in Europe, Asia and North America.
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.
Download or read book Against Civilization written by John Zerzan and published by Feral House. This book was released on 2005 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides a collection of tlhought-provoking essays that look into the dehumanizing core of modern civilization, and the ideas that have given rise to the anarcho-primitivist movement. This edition includes 18 additional essays and feral illustrations by R.L. Tubbesing. --From publisher description.
Download or read book Understanding Collapse written by Guy D. Middleton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted.
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.
Download or read book The Decline of the West written by Oswald Spengler and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1991 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spengler's work describes how we have entered into a centuries-long "world-historical" phase comparable to late antiquity, and his controversial ideas spark debate over the meaning of historiography.
Download or read book Holding Up a Mirror written by Anne Glyn-Jones and published by Imprint Academic. This book was released on 1996 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The good news is: that faith in material goods really does bring prosperity to society. The bad news is: that self-same commitment to material things leads inexorably to the destruction of the civilizations it builds. Using theatre as a measure society's health, this book shows that Ancient Greece and Rome, Mediaeval Christendom and our own contemporary society all follow the same pattern: prosperity thrives on the conviction that the material world alone constitutes true 'reality'; but that very conviction leads to a rejection of the supernatural, undermines absolute moral standards, and leads to cultural and social disintegration.
Download or read book Civilization and Its Discontents written by Sigmund Freud and published by Courier Dover Publications. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Dover thrift editions).
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.
Download or read book Our Shadowed World written by Dominic Kirkham and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-08-08 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civilization is often equated with the story of human advancement and progress. Yet it is also the story of human oppression, exploitation, war, and empire. In our own time, modern global civilization has brought us to the brink of planetary destruction. By offering an understanding of our past, this book aims to provide a stimulus to considering a different future. Our Shadowed World considers how we have been brought to this point. It describes how the fragmented and conflicted state of humanity has "progressed" from the earliest city-states to the devastation of world war and holocaust--how civilization has brought its own form of savagery. What beliefs have underlain and motivated human action? How have humans tried to understand their world? Driven by the relentless quest for power, by greed, and by extreme beliefs, the human enterprise today has placed the very idea of civilization under threat, the subject of radical questioning. Despite a new ecological awareness dedicated to saving the planet from civilization's carelessness, and a preoccupation with the nature of apocalyptic thinking, a question mark looms over the very survival of humanity in its present state--a question mark that now overshadows the world.
Download or read book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order written by Samuel P. Huntington and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-05-31 with total page 555 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic study of post-Cold War international relations, more relevant than ever in today’s geopolitical climate—with a foreword by Zbigniew Brzezinski. Since its initial publication in 1996, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order has become one of the most influential books ever written about foreign affairs. Samuel Huntington explains how clashes between civilizations pose the greatest threat to world peace, but also how an international order based on civilizations is the best safeguard against war. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order explains how the population explosion in Muslim countries and the economic rise of East Asia have changed global politics. These developments challenge Western dominance, promote opposition to supposedly “universal” Western ideals, and intensify inter-civilization conflict over such issues as nuclear proliferation, immigration, human rights, and democracy. In his incisive analysis, Huntington offers a strategy for the West to preserve its unique culture and emphasizes the need for people everywhere to learn to coexist in a complex, multipolar, multi-civilizational world.
Download or read book Energy and Civilization written by Vaclav Smil and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.
Download or read book The Crisis of Our Time written by David B. King and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Population Bomb written by Paul R. Ehrlich and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Thoughts on Modern Civilisation written by Jonathan Swift and published by . This book was released on 1905* with total page 18 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Historical Dynamics written by Peter Turchin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many historical processes are dynamic. Populations grow and decline. Empires expand and collapse. Religions spread and wither. Natural scientists have made great strides in understanding dynamical processes in the physical and biological worlds using a synthetic approach that combines mathematical modeling with statistical analyses. Taking up the problem of territorial dynamics--why some polities at certain times expand and at other times contract--this book shows that a similar research program can advance our understanding of dynamical processes in history. Peter Turchin develops hypotheses from a wide range of social, political, economic, and demographic factors: geopolitics, factors affecting collective solidarity, dynamics of ethnic assimilation/religious conversion, and the interaction between population dynamics and sociopolitical stability. He then translates these into a spectrum of mathematical models, investigates the dynamics predicted by the models, and contrasts model predictions with empirical patterns. Turchin's highly instructive empirical tests demonstrate that certain models predict empirical patterns with a very high degree of accuracy. For instance, one model accounts for the recurrent waves of state breakdown in medieval and early modern Europe. And historical data confirm that ethno-nationalist solidarity produces an aggressively expansive state under certain conditions (such as in locations where imperial frontiers coincide with religious divides). The strength of Turchin's results suggests that the synthetic approach he advocates can significantly improve our understanding of historical dynamics.
Download or read book WHY CIVILIZATIONS FALL And Cannot Rise Again written by Ralph Bourne and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-18 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historians and economists commonly cite natural disasters and foreign invasions to explain cultural collapses. The problem is, human families have been overcoming disasters for thousands of years; human have united to create booming economies in inhospitable areas, from the hot deserts to the freezing poles. The question is--what forces, over long, long time periods, divide and destroy human families; what forces cause irreconcilable conflicts that keeps human families from reuniting to solve their mutual problems? Perhaps these forces are unnoticed because they work over extended periods of time, beyond the short lifespans and understandings of ordinary humans. What are these inhuman forces exactly? And how, specifically, do they destroy human cultures? In police investigations, following the capital flow (the money) often leads investigators to important facts-such as, why crimes are committed and who the criminals are. Most crimes are disputes over capital. Indeed, following the capital flow, seeking the facts, is the intent of this book. We hope to encounter the true criminals of history. The conclusions should be irrefutable and obvious. But to be thorough, we need to start at the beginning, the true beginning of capital exchanges: This original capital economy, the economy of life, started long before humans arrived, billions of years ago. So we will begin 4.1 billion years ago at the origin of capital economies on earth. The discussion will include the ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome, China, The Khmer, The Maya, The Anasazi, Europe, Ottomans, Africa, and the Americas. Why did they fall? Why did they fail to rise again? And finally, how do the natural forces of cultural entropy continue to impact modern civilizations today?
