Ole J Benedictow describes how he calculated that the Black Death killed 50 million people in the 14th century, or 60 per cent of Europe’s entire population.
Goliath's curse: the history and future of societal collapse
A vast and unprecedented survey of societal collapse -- stretching from the Bronze Age to the age of silicon -- that digs through the ruins of fallen societies to understand the root causes of their downfall and the most dire consequences for our future. Stepping back to look at our precariously interdependent global society of today -- with the threat of nuclear war ever present and the world heating up faster than it did before the Great Permian Extinction, which wiped away 80-90 percent of life on Earth -- one couldn't be blamed for asking : Will we make it? Addressing this question with the seriousness it demands, Cambridge scholar Luke Kemp conducts a historical autopsy that stretches across five millennia, and more than 440 societal lifespans, from the first Egyptian dynasty to the modern-day United Kingdom, using the latest discoveries from archaeology and anthropology to reveal profound and often counterintuitive insights into why exactly societies fail. While books like Jared Diamond's Collapse zoom in on only a few case studies, Kemp's embrace of a 'deep systems' approach, availing himself of the largest dataset possible, allows him to discover the broader trends, and deeper causes, of collapse that pose future risks -- without abandoning the gripping historical narratives that bring these pages alive. 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
Brutal June heat wave killed as many as 14,000 Europeans
POLITICO calculations show thousands of excess deaths across six worst-hit countries.
Europe recorded 10,000 excess deaths during late-June heatwave, data show
Scientists have said the late-June heatwave would have been "virtually impossible" without human-caused climate change, which is making heatwaves more frequent and intense.
High heat killed 50,000 Europeans this summer.
Scientists are blaming climate breakdown for that record figure, which is almost double 2025’s, and only covers city areas — meaning the real number of deaths is likely higher. According to this new mortality report, Malta, Italy, and Hungary had the hightest rates of people succumbing to the heat. [Link: Heat killed ‘staggering’ 50,000 people in Europe’s cities this summer, scientists warn | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/23/heat-killed-staggering-50000-people-european-cities-this-summer-experts | The Guardian]
This is How People Are Dying in America’s Prisons and Jails
An analysis by The Marshall Project provides a window into what causes thousands of people to die in prisons and jails every year.
1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD)
Black Hanging Deaths: Communities Look to UN for Help
Heat killed ‘staggering’ 50,000 people in Europe’s cities this summer, scientists warn
People succumbed to heat at highest rates in Malta, Italy and Hungary, with health issues, loneliness and poverty exacerbating toll
‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse
An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished
Fascists Really Believe It
Millions could die because of ideas intellectually and morally equivalent to the ‘lizard people’ conspiracy theory.
Thomas Piketty Knew This Was Coming
The scholar of inequality warned us that our economic systems couldn’t withstand a global catastrophe.
The Racialization of Print
Readers since Thomas Jefferson have believed it possible to judge entire races of people based on a single book, yet no one has attempted to explain the orig...
Belgium had the highest excess mortality rate in Europe during June heatwave
People living in poorer regions were hit hardest by the extreme heat.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities is a 1961 book by writer and activist Jane Jacobs. The book is a critique of 1950s urban planning policy, which it holds responsible for the decline of many city neighborhoods in the United States. The book is Jacobs' best-known and most influential work.
