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.

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.

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.

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.

Publikacja prac seminarium "School of American Research" które odbyło się w Santa Fe, 22-26 marca 1982 r.