The Collapse of Complex Societies

The Collapse of Complex Societies
ISBN-10
0521340926
ISBN-13
9780521340922
Category
Social Science
Pages
262
Language
English
Published
1988-05-27
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Author
Joseph Tainter

Description

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.

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