There's two types of Apocalypse porn: The quick asteroid/nuclear war/zombie collapse and the slow Malthusian/Spenglerian/This-is-the-way-the-world-ends-not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper collapse. Goldman's book is the latter of the highest order. Secularists after reading this book will either go home to commit suicide to turn to their significant other and get down to the business of cranking out babies in the name of Western Modernity.

I've been following his column in the Asia Times for years and More...

Interesting figures. The basic theme of this book is the plunging fertility rates in many countries across the globe and how this is tied to a loss of faith. The author argues that countries lose the "will to live" when they see their culture unable to advance, which normally happens when they turn from religion but cannot replace it with anything enduring. At that point, fertility rates drop and the culture goes into a demographic slide. He says many countries in Europe have already reached the More...

An interesting, disorganized read

Published 2011 by Regnery Publishing

David P. Goldman's Why Civilizations Die is an ambitious study in demographics, history and cultural legacy that attempts to predict the future of Western Europe, the Middle East and the United States. In a way it is a less humorous version of Mark Steyn's After America , except that Goldman takes in the same data and comes up with radically different conclusions...

Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/... More...

I found it interesting in finding how even the Islamic nations are losing population. It was a new take on Europe's Thirty Years War and how the real battles was not Catholic vs. Protestant but to do in the population in the German states and how the United States was settled by Europeans and what helped lead to the American Civil War. It can be disjointed in places, and it helps to read the philosophy of Oswald Spengler to see Mr. Goldman's train of thought.

Mark Steyn explained the threat of Islam. David Goldman explains why Islam is threatening but no real threat in the long term. Besides this, the book is a rundown on current demographic trends and what they mean for the world over the next century. There are many surprises. A MUST READ.

I didn't intend to read this but after reading the introduction I couldn't stop. Suffice it to say I am now rather worried about the future path for specific nations. It also gave me a greater understanding of Islam and how it differs from Christianity and Judaism. Very interesting read.

David P. Goldman (who writes for the Asia Times Online as Spengler) examines the inverted population pyramids of most of the industrial countries, the present tendency of Islamic countries to follow that trend to depopulation and cultural extinction, and speculates on why the demographics of the United States are so different.

He begins each section with one of "Spengler's Universal Laws" (which are amusing, subversive, and a little depressing), then provides statistics to support his assertions. More...

Claims that Iran now has the highest population decline in human history. They've gone from 7 kids per family a couple of decades ago to 1 per family now. I never would have guessed.

Argues that Islam (and other cultures/religions) are dying due to lack of population growth, contrary to common impression.