"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.

• We started tracking this book on December 4, 2024.
• This book was $14.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 5 times in the past 505 days.
• The current price of this book is $1.99 last checked one hour ago.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on April 23, 2026.
• This book has been $1.99 2 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $15.00 last reached on February 8, 2025.
• This book has been $15.00 one time since we started tracking it.
• This book is currently at its lowest price since we started tracking it.

• HistoryWorldEarly Civilization
• HistoryScience & MedicineAnthropology
• HistoryWorldCivilization & Culture

• Publication Date: September 23, 2025
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 589 Pages
• File Size: 107 KB