Goliath’s Curse

This is the book on societal collapse that I had always hoped someone would write. It was worth the wait!

Walter Scheidel, author of The Great Leveler

Renowned existential risk specialist Luke Kemp looks both back into history and forward into the future, spelling out the dangers that we currently face and suggesting ways in which we might avoid the pitfalls leading to collapse, before our luck runs out. This is a brilliant and insightful book, guaranteed to keep you thinking during the day and wide awake with worry during the night

Eric Cline, author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed

A profound and mind-expanding book that challenges the existing narratives of societal collapse. Through a long-term lens, Kemp asks us to reconsider histories we thought we knew, a present we take for granted, and future perils we have yet to meet. This is a chillingly enlightening read, which will reorient your understanding of the world and how it came to be

Richard Fisher, author of The Long View

In this wide-ranging book Luke Kemp presents a fascinating multi-millennial panorama of how societies have emerged, flourished, but eventually collapsed. He then addresses the lessons this historical record offers for safeguarding humanity’s future, in an era when unprecedented global connectedness and technological advance could engulf our entire civilisation in a terminal catastrophe

Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, founder of CSER, and author of Our Final Century

Luke Kemp shows that inequality breeds instability and true resilience lies in the democratisation of power. Important reading for anyone committed to a future beyond empire

Jason Hickel, author of Less is More and The Divide

A deeply sobering and strangely inspiring history of how societies collapse - and how we can still save ours. Read it now, or your descendants will find it in the ruins

Johann Hari, author of STOLEN FOCUS

A great book. The history and plausible futures of collapse are set forth with incredible clarity and rigour. The worst outcome is - we hope - probably preventable if we are perceptive enough as a species, and plan enough to persevere against the stupidity and arrogance of the plutocrats in our midst

Danny Dorling, author of THE NEXT CRISIS

Anyone who doubts the importance of this conversation hasn't been paying attention - the spectacle of the world's richest man seizing chaotic control of the world's most powerful nation underscores Luke Kemp's points about the corrosive effects of grotesque inequity. It's clearly past time that we figured out how to build down the scale of our societies, in interesting but urgent ways

Bill McKibben, author Here Comes The Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate, a Fresh Start for Our Civilization

Absolutely essential reading for understanding why past civilisations collapsed, and how to protect our own from the same fate

Lewis Dartnell, author of THE KNOWLEDGE: How to Rebuild Our World After An Apocalypse

A comprehensive overview of societal collapse, based on the analysis of dozens of cases spanning thousands of years from the Paleolithic to today. Highly recommended

Peter Turchin, author of END TIMES

Erudite, detailed and urgent. A masterpiece of data-driven collapsology

Paul Cooper, author of FALL OF CIVILIZATIONS

A brilliant, utterly convincing account of the evolution of human society and why we are probably reaching humanity's end days

Henry Marsh, author of DO NO HARM

Luke Kemp is a writer and thinker of great talent and probity, and Goliath's Curse is an important, clarifying, and most of all timely contribution to our age of anxiety

Gideon Lewis-Kraus, staff writer at the New Yorker

A page-turning masterpiece and a necessary antidote to our age of crisis. If you like Jared Diamond you'll love Goliath's Curse. Compelling and profound

Roman Krznaric, author of THE GOOD ANCESTOR

Goliath’s Curse is both a sweeping history and a forensic diagnosis of the systems that rule us and how they fall apart. This isn’t just about the past; it’s about the trajectory we’re on now. This book offers the clarity we desperately need in an overloaded, accelerating world

Nate Hagens, host of the Great Simplification

A fascinating intellectual journey . . . This is a book that should be read—and a message that should be heeded—by anyone interested in achieving lasting human prosperity while preserving our planet

Professor Jim Bacchus, former Congressman, founding judge of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and author of Democracy for a Sustainable World

With a breathtaking sweep of history, Luke Kemp decodes the operating system of power and its recurring fatal error: the belief that dominance equals resilience. Goliath's Curse reveals how, from the first empires to our digital age, the concentration of power has always been a precursor to collapse. By showing that our most enduring social structures are built not on command, but on collaboration, Kemp offers a profound argument for the power of plurality. An essential read for anyone building the more open, fair, and anti-fragile world we urgently need

Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador and founding Minister of Digital Affairs