ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book examines the two cultural collapses, the Maya of the New World and the Ancient Roman Empire. These two cultures are not in any way historically or culturally connected, nor do they exist in similar climatic or environmental contexts, but they were nonetheless affected by similar problems that ultimately led to their collapse. The book presents the details of these two cultural collapses and the common problems that they could not solve. More importantly, the problems that the Romans and Maya had are similar to those we face today and provide a cautionary tale to contemporary societies. The book is about collapse, the kind of collapse we think both cultures exemplify – slow collapse. The degree of integration of these two civilizations is obviously different. The Maya were never an empire, whereas the Romans created and fully exemplified the term.
