Why Did Ancient Civilizations Fail?

by Scott A.J. Johnson

Ideas abound as to why certain complex societies collapsed in the past, including environmental change, subsistence failure, fluctuating social structure and lack of adaptability. Why Did Ancient Civilizations Fail ? evaluates the current theories in this important topic and discusses why they offer only partial explanations of the failure of past civilizations. This engaging book offers a new theory of collapse, that of social hubris. Through an examination of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Roman, Maya, Inca, and Aztec societies, Johnson persuasively argues that hubris blinded many ancient peoples to evidence that would have allowed them to adapt, and he further considers how this has implications for contemporary societies. Comprehensive and well-written, this volume serves as an ideal text for undergraduate courses on ancient complex societies, as well as appealing to the scholar interested in societal collapse.

294 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2015

Reviews

[João Abegão · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book through and through, I was just amazed by the small bit about overpopulation not being an issue. Didn't expect that sanitized speech at the end, after examining so many factors affecting past societies and our current modern industrial civilization, and seeing Johnson arguing that only consumption is the problem and rehearsing that bit that Ehrlich and colleagues were wrong. Well, I'm one of those colleagues, and I'm also doing my PhD thesis on collapse, so I'll have to discuss this on my work.