Biohistory : decline and fall of the West / by Jim Penman.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Of science and temperament -- 2. Food restriction -- 3. The civilization factor -- 4. Aggression -- 5. Infancy and childhood -- 6. The rise of the West -- 7. The civilization cycle -- 8. Lemming cycles -- 9. War -- 10. Recession and tyranny -- 11. Why regimes fall and civilizations collapse -- 12. Rome -- 13. The stability factor -- 14. China and India -- 15. The triumph of the fundamentalists -- 16. The decline of the West -- 17. The future.

Western civilisation is on a path to destruction. In coming decades, economies will shrink, democracy will retreat and nations crumble. The long-term result will be grinding poverty, superstition and disease. This isn't scaremongering - it is science. In 'Biohistory: the decline and fall of the West', Dr Jim Penman, details a revolutionary new theory about why civilizations collapse. For the first time, Penman directly links human biology with the rise and fall of civilisations - a cataclysmic relationship that brought the Romans, the ancient Greeks and all other Empires to their knees. Based on pioneering scientific research, Penman reveals the deadly, invisible forces at play across human and animal history - and why the West will be the next victim. Biohistory makes use of the latest findings in epigenetics, the study of how the environment affects our genes. Presented in easy-to-digest language, it draws on history, biology, anthropology and economics to explain the real drivers of social change and how evolutionary mechanisms designed to adapt animal social behaviour to changing food conditions determine the fate of civilisation. The West's only hope of avoiding catastrophe lies with the biological sciences, but is it already too late to change the course of history?

Dr Jim Penman is a guest lecturer in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT.

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