Dark Age America

Climate Change, Cultural Collapse, and the Hard Future Ahead

By: John Michael Greer

Narrated by: Michael Dowd

After decades of missed opportunities, the door to a sustainable future has closed, and the future we face now is one in which today's industrial civilization unravels in the face of uncontrolled climate change and resource depletion.

What is the world going to look like when all these changes have run their course? Author John Michael Greer seeks to answer this question, and with some degree of accuracy, since civilizations tend to collapse in remarkably similar ways.

Dark Age America, then, seeks to map out in advance the history of collapse, giving us an idea of what the next 500 years or so might look like as globalization ends and North American civilization reaches the end of its lifecycle and enters the stages of decline and fall.

In many ways, this is Greer's most uncompromising work, though by no means without hope to offer. Knowing where we're headed collectively is a crucial step in responding constructively to the challenges of the future and doing what we can now to help our descendants make the most of the world we're leaving them.

John Michael Greer, historian of ideas and one of the most influential authors exploring the future of industrial society, writes the widely cited weekly blog the Archdruid Report and has published more than 30 books including The Long Descent, The Ecotechnic Future, The Wealth of Nature, and After Progress. He lives in Cumberland, Maryland, an old mill town in the Appalachians, with his wife Sara.

©2016 John Michael Greer (P)2017 Post Hypnotic Press Inc.

Oh how I wish this genius was not right!

I tried, I tried to find the errors in John Michael Greer’s analysis of what is happening, but it way too closely aligns with everything else that I have read and seen. We are seeing it now before our very eyes. Not only did he hit the nail on the head, but he did it with such elegance that it was actually almost a pleasure to listen to. Michael Dowd was an amazing narrator.

Civilization dies in darkness

Though the night is dark, dawn comes again.

Industrial civilizations reckless and myopic treatment of petrochemical energy and the consequences that will follow in the setting of the North American continent

Loved it

Michael Dowd does an excellent job of pacing the reading, pausing here and there where necessary and describing the images and graphs simply and clearly, allowing my tech-addled attention span access to a great book.

John Micheal Greer's writing is, itself, very good; his use of language and familiar examples prepares the reader or listener as he approaches more complex ideas. Grim as the subject matter is, a genial tone still emerges encouraging others not to wallow in despair, but instead to get up and dust off, as the work won't do itself.

A must read

A brutal view into the future of the North American continent and industrial society - I’m surprised it’s not censored.

Important

A difficult topic but it was really good for putting the things I'm seeing happen into context, both in ancient and recent history. Somehow, knowing this has happened before and will happen again helps me to know where to focus my attention, time, and resources toward living a good life no matter what scenarios are playing out on the national and world stages. Good advice and insight. Ended on a positive note.