Book
Apocalypse : how catastrophe transformed our world and can forge new futures / Lizzie Wade.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780063097308 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: viii, 305 pages : maps ; 24 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2025]
- Copyright: ©2025
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | 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. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Archaeology and history. Catastrophical, The. Civilization, Modern. Future, The. Human beings > Extinction. Human beings > Forecasting. Human ecology. |
Available copies
- 0 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cookstown Branch | 577.27 Wad | 31681010418085 | NONFIC | Checked out | 08/14/2025 |
- Baker & Taylor
"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 tooffer surprising opportunities for radical change"-- - Baker & Taylor
A new view on the great human tradition of apocalypse, from the rise of Homo sapiens in our deep past 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. Maps. - HARPERCOLL
A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read Book of May 2025 ⢠A Publishers Weekly Most Anticipated History Book of the Year â¢Â A The Millions Most Anticipated Spring Book of the Year
"Lizzie Wade is an exceptional journalist and a master storyteller. She reminds us that survival always has been, and still is, possible, and that our world always has been, and still is, a choice." âEd Yong, author of An Immense World
âThis book upended my understanding of the ancient world. Wade renders our deep past in vivid prose, showing us that times of great rupture also bring great possibilities for new ways of living, if we let them. Apocalypse is the best kind of history book: vibrant and vital.â âZoë Schlanger, author of The Light Eaters
A richly imagined new view on the great human tradition of apocalypse, from the rise of Homo sapiens to the climate instability of our present, that defies conventional wisdom and long-held stories about our deep past to reveal how cataclysmic events are not irrevocable endings, but transformations.
A drought lasts for decades, a disease rips through a city, a civilization collapses. When we finally uncover the ruins, we ask: What happened? The good news is, weâve been here before. History is long, and people have already confronted just about every apocalypse weâre facing today. But these days, archaeologists are getting better at seeing stories of survival, transformation, and even progress hidden within those histories of collapse and destruction. Perhaps, we begin to see, apocalypses do not destroy worlds, but create them anew.
Apocalypse offers a new way of understanding human history, reframing it as a series of crises and cataclysms that we survived, moments of choice in an evolution of humanity that has never been predetermined or even linear. Here Lizzie Wade asks us to reckon with our long-held narratives of these events, from the end of Old Kingdom Egypt, the collapse of the Classic Maya, to the Black Death, and shows us how people lived through and beyond themâand even considered what a new world could look like in their wake.
The more we learn about apocalypses past, the more hope we have that we will survive our own. It wonât be pleasant. It wonât be fair. The world will be different on the other side, and our cultures and communitiesâperhaps even our speciesâwill be different too.
