Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse

Kemp, a specialist in global risk analysis, surveys the rise and fall of states, empires, and civilizations across the last five millennia, looking for lessons for today. He is particularly interested in polities that he calls “Goliaths”: large-scale hierarchical political orders built on dominance, force, and elite rule. The Roman Empire and the Chinese Han dynasty were Goliath powers in their eras, and more recent European and Asian empires followed in their footsteps. Kemp argues that despite their many differences, these Goliaths all sowed the seeds of their own destruction. The book offers a long list of reasons why seemingly rich and powerful empires and civilizations eventually faced setbacks and collapse, including territorial overreach, wealth inequality, corruption, social immiseration, environmental degradation, resource scarcity, war, and poor leadership. Kemp argues that the contemporary Goliath is not a single country but a globalized capitalist civilization. With climate change, nuclear weapons proliferation, pandemics, spiraling inequality, and a fragmenting global system presided over by uninspiring leaders, Kemp worries that today’s global Goliath may be approaching the precipice.