The Collapse of Complex Societies

Description

Author: Tainter, Joseph A.  (1949-)

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Pub Date: 1990 (First paperback printing), 1992

Binding: Paperback

Condition: 2 copies.  copy 1 (CH): Fair to Good.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, folds.  Some wrinkling to front cover at spine edge.  One set of pages looks like a bookmark was left in the book for a long time.  Very light edge and corner wear.  Copy 2 (D): Fair.  Binding tight.  No tears, bends, folds.  Upper edge of the first 5 pages has a paperclip mark.  Previous owner’s name on upper corner ffep/half-title page.  Several creases to rear cover.  Smudging to bottom text block.  Light edge and corner wear.

Notes: From China to Chaco, why some societies fail.  Covers lots of areas–Asia, Middle East, Europe, Central and South America, the Southwest.  Basic economic lesson: “Per capita rates of economic growth decline with increasing GNP, so that as the economy of a society expands, its rate of growth slows down.  Various economists attribute this in large part to the cost of producing technical knowledge.  It has been suggested that high growth rates use up the existing backlog of knowledge, so that growth thereafter must rely on the rate at which new knowledge is created.  Growth, therefore, follows a logistic curve.  Middle income nations develop a faster growth rate because they are able to simply absorb knowledge and technology developed elsewhere.”  (Pages 117-118)  For an excellent analysis of Tainter’s theory see  https://philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-collapse-of-complex-societies_1.html . Copy 1 from the library of the late environmentalist Dave Foreman.