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Notice of Public Meeting: Kalamazoo Public Library Board of Trustees | July 27 | 5:30 pm | Central Library/Van Deusen Room. The packet of information for the meeting can be found on the library’s website. 

Book

Apocalypse : how catastrophe transformed our world and can forge new futures

Call Number

  • 577.27 W1199 (CEN)

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Edition

First edition.

Publication Information

New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2025]

Physical Description

viii, 304 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Summary

"A new view on the human tradition of apocalypse, from the rise of Homo sapiens to the climate instability of our present, and a look at how the new tools of archaeology reveal these upheavals as moments that created the world we live in, and continue to offer surprising opportunities for radical change"--

Contents

  • Introduction : the end
  • How we misunderstood the apocalypse of human extinction
  • How sea level rise spurred ingenuity
  • How apocalypse brought people together
  • How apocalypses turn inequality into violence
  • How society collapses, but civilization survives
  • How post-apocalyptic societies reinvent themselves
  • How the apocalypse of colonialism has hidden in plain sight
  • How slavery created the modern world
  • Why we've stayed trapped in the apocalypse-and how we can find our way out
  • Epilogue : the beginning.

Subjects