Goliath's Curse

The History and Future of Societal Collapse

By: Luke Kemp

Narrated by: Luke Kemp

“In the modern tradition of Big Books of human history like Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens and David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything, Goliath’s Curse provides a novel theory of civilizational development. . . . [It] feels something like reading the French economist Thomas Piketty filtered through Mad Max: Fury Road.” —Ed Simon, The New York Times Book Review

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE CONVERSATION AND KIRKUS • A NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB'S MUST-READ BOOK • SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • A radical retelling of human history through the cycle of societal collapse
“Deeply sobering and strangely inspiring. . . . Read it now, or your descendants will find it in the ruins.” —Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus

In Goliath’s Curse, Cambridge scholar Luke Kemp conducts a historical autopsy on our species, from the earliest cities to the collapse of modern states like Somalia. He traces the emergence of “Goliaths”: large societies built on a collection of hierarchies that are also terrifyingly fragile, collapsing time after time across the world. Drawing on historical databases and the latest discoveries in archaeology and anthropology, he uncovers groundbreaking revelations:

• More democratic societies tend to be more resilient.
• In our modern, global Goliath, a collapse is likely to be long-lasting and more dire than ever before.
• Collapse may be invisible until after it has occurred. It’s possible we’re living through one now.
• Collapse has often had a more positive outcome for the general population than for the 1%.
• All Goliaths contain the seeds of their own demise.

As useful for finding a way forward as it is for diagnosing our precarious present, Goliath’s Curse is a stark reminder that there are both bright and dark sides to societal collapse—that it is not necessarily a reversion to chaos or a dark age—and that making a more resilient world may well mean making a more just one.

WIll Have to Buy Hardcopy

Unfortunately I'm returning this book because I cannot bring myself to listen to 23 hours with this narration. The content and concepts were great and very relevant, as far as I got, but hiring a professional narrator would do it so much more justice. I'm all for varying accents (don't have any particular preference), but Professor Kemp's narration is distractingly whispy and the continual mispronunciation of collapse ( /kəˈlaps/ ) took me out of the text every time. This will need to be a physical book purchase, which is OK with me because it is a legitimate body of work to have available on the bookshelf at any time.

Relevant look at civilizations

The book is an interesting and relevant look at how civilizations rise and fall. Many of the issues are of current concern.

The one weakness is the author as narrator. He speaks in a very soft, almost, whisper. This can make it difficult to hear.

The worst reader I have ever listened to.

The author is a great storyteller but horrible reader. I had to buy the book to understand the story because the narration is horrendous. The book is the way to go.

Stark view of future.

Stark view of future. Made me glad I am old. But I worry for my children and grandchildren. Very well researched and thought out. At the end he provides a prescription for saving the future for human beings but it does seem improbable. Of course we can hope for someone with brilliant insights. It seems population always grows to fill its niche and become threatened. Now the threats are more existential.

Why so slow?

This is the weirdest narration - feels like the voice is just as slow at 1.5X as it is at 1.2X. I slowed it down to 1X and was astonished at just how slow the narrator is speaking.