Tertulia Logo
Sign upLog In
Cart Icon0
Cart Icon0
The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: Collapse of Complex Societies 1ed, Joseph Tainter

Collapse of Complex Societies 1ed

Joseph Tainter

Paperback
Regular price$66.99With free membership trial$41.9950% off your first book(max discount $25)+ Free shipping
In Stock– Ships within one business day

Do you recommend this book?

Yes!

No

Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. The Collapse of Complex Societies, though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future. 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 that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • Publish Date: Mar 30th, 1990
  • Pages: 262
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.50in - 6.60in - 0.70in - 0.95lb
  • EAN: 9780521386739
  • Categories: • Ancient - General• Archaeology

More books to explore

Book Cover for: The World of Late Antiquity, Peter Brown
Book Cover for: Classical Art: From Greece to Rome, John Henderson
Book Cover for: Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire, Eckart Frahm
Book Cover for: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, David W. Anthony
Book Cover for: The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found, Mary Beard
Book Cover for: Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts, Alexander Langlands
Book Cover for: The New Complete Works of Josephus, Flavius Josephus
Book Cover for: Augustine of Hippo: A Biography, Peter Brown
Book Cover for: A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology, Toby Wilkinson
Book Cover for: The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, Peter Brown
Book Cover for: 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed: Revised and Updated, Eric H. Cline
Book Cover for: Discovering the City of Sodom: The Fascinating, True Account of the Discovery of the Old Testament's Most Infamous City, Steven Collins
Book Cover for: The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World, James Crawford
Book Cover for: Indians: A Brief History of a Civilization, Namit Arora
Book Cover for: Rome and Persia: The Seven Hundred Year Rivalry, Adrian Goldsworthy

More books by Joseph Tainter

Book Cover for: Supply-Side Sustainability, Timothy Allen

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Danny Crichton
Danny Crichton
@DannyCrichton
2 years

Head of Editorial @Lux_Capital, former Managing Editor @TechCrunch. Analyzing tech, power, science, disasters, growth and startups.

3rd Place: The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph A. Tainter — "Complexity is fundamentally good for societies … but there is a turning point in the value of additional complexity where we are adding complications without the material benefits that accrued before." https://t.co/F5yHPNEWcX

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Unfollow
Unfollow
@RoyScranton
2 years

Learning to die in the Anthropocene. Anti-gnostic radical materialist. Pronouns: Anātman/anātman's. Literacy is a curse. Teaches @notredame. RT=schizoid howl.

@ThePirateBen @Tom_Swann Joseph Tainter, "The Collapse of Complex Societies." https://t.co/3AiWTusvcX

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Formerly Chuck’s
Formerly Chuck’s
@SumOfAllTears
2 years

Twitter is a net-negative for the United States and humanity at large. It should be shuttered for the good of all mankind. I’m just here to watch the decline.

@ScottAdamsSays Ever read The Collapse of Complex Societies by archaeologist Joseph Tainter? Offers an economic explanation.

twitter.com
Show more

Praise for this book

"While the theoretical part of the book is quite remarkable and based on exceptional erudition, I also found the accumulation of the supporting data to be interesting reading . . . The merit of the book is that it is interesting. It modifies some of our views about early states and their collapse mainly by using data. It also shows how archaeology in alliance with social sciences opens the way for a comparative analysis of change in political and other cultural institutions." European Cultural Heritage
"Tainter's is an attractive and compelling thesis of a genre which is nearly extinct among domestic historians." History Today
"This is a lucid and stimulating book. Tainter does provide a framework for organizing and evaluating the evidence of collapse. One of the strengths of his framework is the broadness of its terms of reference...Tainter's model accomodates all levels of complexity and all kinds of evidence, from fiscal policy to the acquisition of raw materials. It deserves to be widely read." Antiquity
"Tainter has provided copious grist for the intellectual mill in this remarkable piece of scholarship. The breadth of its coverage is given order by a model that qualifies, I believe, as one of the covering laws archaeologists have sought. In addition, Old World and New World scholars alike can profit from a reading of this book." P. Nick Kardulias, American Journal of Archaeology
"The Collapse of Complex Societies contains much useful historical and archeological information on empires that have abruptly disappeared." James B. Rule, SUNY, Stony Brook, in Population and Environment
"The book is thought-provoking, engaging, and often witty, and well illustrates the relevancy of classical antiquity to contemporary concerns." Classical World

What people are saying

See more