Investigating Societal Collapse - the answers are out there!

I know many year 10 students are feeling a little uncertain as to where to start with the rather complex topic of societal collapse. Understanding the patterns of history at this level is a little bit like trying to learn a foreign language. At first nothing makes sense. My advice is the same as for learning a foreign language - just get started. The pieces of the puzzle will come together as you conduct your investigations.

So where to start? Well, the task, in a sense, has two intertwined aspects. One is about developing a conceptual understanding of why societies collapse, the other is about understanding the events and causes that led to one particular society collapsing. Here are a few brief suggestions...

I've just started bookmarking sites related to collapse, so you may want to go there. If you do a web search, you will need to be a little more specific. But if you search for "societal collapse" you'll get some interesting results. I have often pointed students in the direction of Wikipedia, not as an inherently reliable source itself, but because it usually offers a useful overview of a topic (much like an encyclopedia would), but more importantly, it will have links to useful internet and print sources of information. This was how, for instance, I discovered articles on the Decline of the Roman Empire and Deforestation during the Roman period. The first article is useful because it outlines many of the different theories as to why Rome collapsed, the second because it provides useful information which would contribute to the environmental causes of the collapse of Rome (which would be very useful to a student studying Rome and using Jared Diamond's five point framework). It's worth noting that both articles are extensively linked and referenced, so providing a pathway to further information. I also found an article harshly critiquing Jared Diamond's "geographical determinism" which may be of interest to anyone looking for alternatives to the framework which we've learned about in class.

So feel assured that for most chosen topics, there is plenty of source material available.

Finally, I would recommend that students go for breadth prior to depth. Get an overview of the topic. Skim read or read the introductions to a few different historians or sources of information first. Try to get a rough idea of the explanations for collapse offered by each author. Jot down some dot points. Then select 2 or 3 of what seem the most reliable sources and explore them in greater depth. If needed you can extract pieces of information from other sources as needed in addition to this.

Remember that this is your report. You need to develop your own conclusions based on the evidence and arguments made by others.