Beyond Collapse

Beyond Collapse PDF

Author: Ronald K. Faulseit

Publisher: SIU Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 553

ISBN-13: 0809333996

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book interprets how ancient civilizations responded to various stresses, including environmental change, warfare, and the fragmentation of political institutions. It focuses on what happened during and after the decline of once powerful regimes, and posits that they experienced social resilience and transformation instead of collapse.

The Collapse

The Collapse PDF

Author: Mary Sarotte

Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)

Published: 2014-10-07

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 0465064949

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

On the night of November 9, 1989, massive crowds surged toward the Berlin Wall, drawn by an announcement that caught the world by surprise: East Germans could now move freely to the West. The Wall—infamous symbol of divided Cold War Europe—seemed to be falling. But the opening of the gates that night was not planned by the East German ruling regime—nor was it the result of a bargain between either Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It was an accident. In The Collapse, prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte reveals how a perfect storm of decisions made by daring underground revolutionaries, disgruntled Stasi officers, and dictatorial party bosses sparked an unexpected series of events culminating in the chaotic fall of the Wall. With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, she brings to vivid life a story that sweeps across Budapest, Prague, Dresden, and Leipzig and up to the armed checkpoints in Berlin. We meet the revolutionaries Roland Jahn, Aram Radomski, and Siggi Schefke, risking it all to smuggle the truth across the Iron Curtain; the hapless Politburo member Günter Schabowski, mistakenly suggesting that the Wall is open to a press conference full of foreign journalists, including NBC’s Tom Brokaw; and Stasi officer Harald Jäger, holding the fort at the crucial border crossing that night. Soon, Brokaw starts broadcasting live from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, where the crowds are exulting in the euphoria of newfound freedom—and the dictators are plotting to restore control. Drawing on new archival sources and dozens of interviews, The Collapse offers the definitive account of the night that brought down the Berlin Wall.

Beyond Collapse

Beyond Collapse PDF

Author: T. Joseph Miller Jr

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2012-10-20

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 9781480140806

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Civilizations come and go... ...and they don't always go quietly. In our global civilization, the consequence of it all crashing is going to be far-reaching, and with nowhere to hide. With so many moving parts and a lack of long-term stewardship by our leaders, odds are good that you will want to make at least a few preparations... but the question you often ask is: how? That's where I come in. In Beyond Collapse, we not only get you prepared for such an event, but we also help you and your fellow survivors come together, defend one another, preserve what may be lost and rebuild civilization together. Unlike most books of this type, we don't require a paramilitary mindset, tinfoil headgear, bunkers, or living "off-grid." Everything in here is geared towards gaining skills and resources that are just as useful and socially acceptable in peaceful times as they will be when society and civilization crashes. You will find this book useful for beginners, or those who have been preparing for a long time. The best part is, you will find it useful even if civilization holds up just fine.

Understanding Collapse

Understanding Collapse PDF

Author: Guy D. Middleton

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-06-26

Total Pages: 463

ISBN-13: 110715149X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted.

After Collapse

After Collapse PDF

Author: Glenn M. Schwartz

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2010-08-15

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780816529360

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

From the Euphrates Valley to the southern Peruvian Andes, early complex societies have risen and fallen, but in some cases they have also been reborn. Prior archaeological investigation of these societies has focused primarily on emergence and collapse. This is the first book-length work to examine the question of how and why early complex urban societies have reappeared after periods of decentralization and collapse. Ranging widely across the Near East, the Aegean, East Asia, Mesoamerica, and the Andes, these cross-cultural studies expand our understanding of social evolution by examining how societies were transformed during the period of radical change now termed “collapse.” They seek to discover how societal complexity reemerged, how second-generation states formed, and how these re-emergent states resembled or differed from the complex societies that preceded them. The contributors draw on material culture as well as textual and ethnohistoric data to consider such factors as preexistent institutions, structures, and ideologies that are influential in regeneration; economic and political resilience; the role of social mobility, marginal groups, and peripheries; and ethnic change. In addition to presenting a number of theoretical viewpoints, the contributors also propose reasons why regeneration sometimes does not occur after collapse. A concluding contribution by Norman Yoffee provides a critical exegesis of “collapse” and highlights important patterns found in the case histories related to peripheral regions and secondary elites, and to the ideology of statecraft. After Collapse blazes new research trails in both archaeology and the study of social change, demonstrating that the archaeological record often offers more clues to the “dark ages” that precede regeneration than do text-based studies. It opens up a new window on the past by shifting the focus away from the rise and fall of ancient civilizations to their often more telling fall and rise. CONTRIBUTORS Bennet Bronson Arlen F. Chase Diane Z. Chase Christina A. Conlee Lisa Cooper Timothy S. Hare Alan L. Kolata Marilyn A. Masson Gordon F. McEwan Ellen Morris Ian Morris Carlos Peraza Lope Kenny Sims Miriam T. Stark Jill A. Weber Norman Yoffee

Beyond Hope

Beyond Hope PDF

Author: Deb Ozarko

Publisher:

Published: 2018-03-24

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 9780994984555

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

We have reached the point no return on planet Earth, where the collective intent for biosphere collapse is manifesting at dizzying speed. From widespread social unrest to aggressive threats of nuclear war, to pollution soiling every inch of the planet (and beyond), to mass animal and plant extinction, global overpopulation, and runaway biosphere decay. Many powerful forces are converging to create unprecedented chaos and breakdown. In her outspoken way, Deb Ozarko exposes the madness of the cultural conditioning that has separated humanity from the web of life that sustains existence. In raw, yet eloquent detail, she makes it impossible for the reader to dismiss this truth for themselves. The question we are now faced with is, "How do we choose to live in a dying world?" Many people consider "hope" to be the fuel of possibility. If one doesn't have hope, possibility dies. Beyond Hope debunks this long-standing myth and liberates the reader to choose a more powerful way. Beyond Hope is a profound act of love. Beyond a simple litany of all that is in collapse, Deb's perspective compels us to awaken to something beyond our abilities to tell stories about what is happening "out there" and begin to turn the formidable power of our attention to what is happening "in here" ... inside, where we live. Inside, where we are already whole, unique and essential to our world. This is where our deepest power lies. Beyond Hope is not a book of science, philosophy or reason to appease the oppressive intellect. It's a book about letting go. Letting go of the fear of uncertainty. Letting go of false hope for an illusory future. Letting go of the dream for a collective awakening. Letting go of the stories of what may or may not be. Letting go of what once defined meaning. Letting go of the fear of mortality. Letting go of what we've been conditioned to believe ourselves to be. Letting go of our broken, dysfunctional world. We no longer have the luxury of time to lie to ourselves or each other anymore. We can no longer defer or delay taking a long, hard look at what we have allowed ourselves to become. We can no longer rationalize the irrational, or deny the undeniable. The greatest gift that runaway biosphere decay offers lies in the density and intensity of its press for us to notice how personal it all is. It can be a profound propellant to move us into our own evolution in a non-incremental, non-linear way. Beyond Hope is written from the Soul, for the Soul. As such, it is profoundly intimate-both in its writing and in its reading. Those who dare to read it, engage it, and act on it, will be transformed.

Fixing Law Schools

Fixing Law Schools PDF

Author: Benjamin H. Barton

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2019-12-17

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1479866555

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

An urgent plea for much needed reforms to legal education The period from 2008 to 2018 was a lost decade for American law schools. Employment results were terrible. Applications and enrollment cratered. Revenue dropped precipitously and several law schools closed. Almost all law schools shrank in terms of students, faculty, and staff. A handful of schools even closed. Despite these dismal results, law school tuition outran inflation and student indebtedness exploded, creating a truly toxic brew of higher costs for worse results. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 and the subsequent role of hero-lawyers in the “resistance” has made law school relevant again and applications have increased. However, despite the strong early returns, we still have no idea whether law schools are out of the woods or not. If the Trump Bump is temporary or does not result in steady enrollment increases, more schools will close. But if it does last, we face another danger. We tend to hope that crises bring about a process of creative destruction, where a downturn causes some businesses to fail and other businesses to adapt. And some of the reforms needed at law schools are obvious: tuition fees need to come down, teaching practices need to change, there should be greater regulations on law schools that fail to deliver on employment and bar passage. Ironically, the opposite has happened for law schools: they suffered a harrowing, near-death experience and the survivors look like they’re going to exhale gratefully and then go back to doing exactly what led them into the crisis in the first place. The urgency of this book is to convince law school stakeholders (faculty, students, applicants, graduates, and regulators) not to just return to business as usual if the Trump Bump proves to be permanent. We have come too far, through too much, to just shrug our shoulders and move on.