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Goliath's Curse

The History and Future of Societal Collapse

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 “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. Anthropologie Environnement Monde Science
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I loved this book. Mr. Kemp has done a beautiful job of highlighting and describing the conditions of societal collapses and rebirth over the last 20000 years. I felt as though I was in an Anthropology classroom.
I thought the book was well written and pretty unbiased. which is a relief. No fear to discuss everything. The existential threats that face us as a world society won't be easily solved and I agree with most of the ideas that could help eliminate them. The challenge being that what was easily done in small populations ie. indigineous councils or small group communism has never worked in large scale. Ultimately there is to much diversity within the world. I have always believed that only an immediate threat to the whole planet will get people to focus on change.
Thank you for helping me to examine facts and ideas that I hadn't considered and excite me to pass on the book and have discussions with family and friends.

Are We Doomed or Can We Change?

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I really enjoyed this book, Luke Kemp is very well versed in this field and it showed through the countless named and cited sources of information. It was full of new research and new perspectives on ancient history, but everything was always taken with an informed perspective and nothing was ever claimed to be absolute truth unless the evedence deemed it so.

The flow and pacing was great and I looked forward to listening every day. I recommend this book to anyone looking to expand their perspectives of society and human nature.

Informed and well sourced

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The first part of the book covers the long history of human societies, “from hunter gatherers to being hunted and gathered” (one of the best parts of the book). Much the same ground as books like Against the Grain, the Dawn of Everything, and Sapiens, exploring how inequality (the concentration of wealth and other forms of power) arose and how increasing inequality undermined different societies (“Goliaths”) and made them susceptible to collapse. Although this is clearly a progressive project, Kemp is more balanced and generally less hysterical than Graeber and Wengrow in his analysis of anthropology, archaeology, and the history of human development.

The last part of the book on collapse scenarios for today takes a bleak, catastrophist turn. It made me want to give up.

Overall, a provocative work, with some useful and important insights. Imperfect, but worth reading, although I cannot recommend the audio book, the narration is brutally robotic and slow (I sped it up to almost 2x to make it almost bearable). I had to refer back to the text often.

A provocative look at the rise and collapse of human civilizations

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