Immoderate Greatness. Why civilisations fail by William Ophuls.

This is a great short book that explains why and how civilisations collapse. Apparently, the problem is in their very nature. In their magnitude, in their Greatness. A comment by Thomas Homer-Dixon in the back of the book says, "Ophuls superbly synthesises a huge amount of literature and presents the synthesis in an easy accessible format with beautiful clear prose." It's true. The book is charged with a lot of analysis, but it is not a difficult read. You just need to be interested in the topic. Homer-Dixon continues, "There is no false optimism here. The patient (modern human civilisation) is critically and perhaps terminally ill," yeah, from Ophuls explanation, it seems that's the case. The book is divided in two big sections Biophysical limits (including ecological exhaustion, exponential growth, expedited entropy and excessive complexity) and Human Error (moral decay and practical failure). Each issue is explained in a separate chapter. But the book is not only about problems. Ophuls shares more of his wisdom at the end, and alternative to a solution in the very last paragraph.