End Times
- Author
- Peter Turchin
- Published
- 2023
- Recommended
- Once
Turchin’s cliodynamics applied to the present: elite overproduction, stagnating popular wellbeing, and a state losing fiscal capacity as the three measurable drivers of political disintegration.
Why it’s on the list: Named in the “how the world really works” thread. A quantitative, falsifiable model of instability, which is rarer than the pattern-matching it is often lumped with.
Where I saw it: In Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note, recovered from the reply thread to @SpencrGreenberg asking “What non-fiction book taught you the most about how the world (or how humanity or society) really works?” (June 5, 2025). The full recovered list lives on A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet).
Page count omitted — no reliable catalog figure was found.
Connections
- A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
- Peter Turchin — the author.
- Institutions — what the model says is failing.