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"In Thomas Homer-Dixon's new study of crisis and revival, he argues that the modern world has become increasingly vulnerable to breakdown - whether from terrorist attacks, environmental disasters, energy scarcity, or the widening gap between rich and poor." "But it is also ripe for renewal. Although recent disasters have caused tremendous suffering, they have taught us how we can reinvigorate the economic, political, and social systems that sustain us. Breakdown need not spiral into calamity or total collapse if we think creatively, act boldly, and develop resilient societies in advance." "The Upside of Down takes readers on a mind-stretching tour of events that have shaken the world - from the fall of Rome to the 1998 Asian financial crisis to the blackouts of 2003. And it draws on diverse fields - archeology, poetry, politics, science, and economics - to show how we might survive tomorrow's inevitable shocks. Disaster and social upheaval are always terrifying. Homer-Dixon illustrates how they can also catalyze the renewal of our societies and our lives."--Jacket. 

Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Homer-Dixon, Thomas F.
Upside of down.
Washington : Island Press, ©2006
(OCoLC)655608159
Material Type: Internet resource
Document Type: Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors: Thomas F Homer-Dixon
ISBN: 1597260649 9781597260640 1597260657 9781597260657
OCLC Number: 70673135
Notes: "A Shearwater book"--Title page verso.
Awards: Winner of IndieFab awards (Political Science) 2006
Description: ix, 429 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Contents: Prologue : Firestorm : San Francisco, Thursday, April 19, 1906 ; Rome, Tuesday, May 13, 2003 ; The white wall --
1. Tectonic stresses : Multipliers ; Synchronous failure ; Beyond management ; From crash to creativity ; Thresholds ; The prospective mind --
2. A keystone in time : The thermodynamics of empire ; A stone's journey ; Colosseum calories ; Energy return on investment ; The exigencies of energy --
3. We are like running water : Demographic momentum ; No land is an island ; Growth's consequences ; Megacities --
4. So long, cheap slaves : From geopolitics to geoscarcity ; Oil's peak ; Where are the giants? ; "The world economy has no plan B" --
5. Earthquake : Negative synergy ; Overload ; Connectivity and speed ; A clausewitz of complexity ; Boundary jumping --
6. Flesh of the land : Stages of denial ; Beyond the horizon ; Squeezed in a vise ; The anthropocene ; Hollow societies --
7. Closing the windows : Kilimanjaro's retreat ; Consensus ; Confidence game ; Back casting ; Momentum and feedback ; Walking toward a cliff ; Frayed networks --
8. No equilibrium : Heading for the exits ; Income gap ; The dirty little secret of development economics ; Curious fixation ; Cultivating discontent ; The growth imperative ; Clouded hope --
9. Cycles within cycles : Licensing denial ; Why don't we face reality ; Diminishing returns ; Panarchy ; Overextending the growth phase --
10. Disintegration : Checkerboard landscape ; Energy subsidy ; Ruthless extraction ; Holland times ten ; Motivation, opportunity, and framing ; Power shift ; A shattered sphere --
11. Catagenesis : A watch list ; Moments of contingency ; Resilience ; Open source --
12. Baalbek: the last rock.
Responsibility: Thomas Homer-Dixon.