5.0 out of 5 based on 1 reviews. – Customer review on 13/01/2007

This book steps up next to Ishmael as a book that causes an eye-opening and perhaps depressing reassessment of where we are the the world.

Ronald Wright has taken a comprehensive survey of archeological inforamtion and recorded history and created a cohesive explanation for the rise and fall of civilizations.

In short, it does not look good for us. Wright shows that we have shown a historical talent for self-destruction and that today's global civilization may be our last hurrah on the civilization train.

Previous civilizations that have outstripped their natural resources have collapsed, but there has always been a new civilization elsewhere to pick up the pieces. But, now that we have a global civilization a collapse would take down the whole world.

While I think this is an excellent book, and worth the five stars, it does miss on one point. There are no suggestions or prescriptions for how to address the problem. It seems that the problem Wright describes is created by the same forces that drive Adam Smith's invisible hand -- the quest of individuals to improve their position. While this individualism can drive economies to grow, Wright would argue that it can also drive civilizations to outstrip their resources -- "Surely MY SUV is not going to bring down civilization. Let someone else drive the Hybrid."

How do we change this behavior? The book does not have suggestions.

It is critical that the ideas on this book become part of the political debate in the world. If we continue to blindly ignore history's warnings, we are likely to see a collapse that would cut our 6-Billion population in half, or even lower.