May Book Club on Collapse: Goliath's Curse

Welcome to Meet the Moment Book Club, where we read books that meet the moment and make sense of it all together. Please see our group page for a list of upcoming books!

After a lively inaugural event discussing Iran, our second book club will dive into collapse -- societal collapse, of states and empires -- Goliaths.

It's especially interesting after April's book "All the Shah's Men," which gave insight into how a Goliath operates; now we can explore how and why one collapses, and ask ourselves, are we living through it now?

"Now we live in a single global Goliath. Growth obsessed, extractive institutions like the fossil fuel industry, big tech and military-industrial complexes rule our world and produce new ways of annihilating our species, from climate change to nuclear war. Our systems are now so fast, complex and interconnected that a future collapse will likely be global, swift and irreversible. All of us now face a choice - we must learn to democratically control Goliath, or the next collapse may be our last."
https://www.abbeys.com.au/book/goliaths-curse-a-deep-history-of-societal-collapse-and-what-it-means-for-our-future-9780241741245.do

The author, Luke Kemp, is coming to speak at Sydney Writer's Festival on May 22 & 23 also!
https://www.swf.org.au/program/festival-2026/luke-kemp-goliaths-curse
https://www.swf.org.au/program/festival-2026/big-histories

We will be meeting at the Erko Hotel, in the open area in the back.

There's no fee, but please purchase your own food/drinks from the venue.

If you have trouble getting the book, message me.

It's okay if you haven't finished the book by the time of the event, but the more the merrier!

If the RSVP list is full, please join the waiting list as there will likely be fluctuations closer to the date

If you RSVP'ed and can't make it, please edit your RSVP so that others can attend. No-shows will be noted and barred from the book club

Please try to be on time as we start and end on time

Look forward to seeing you there