Our common reading for Fall 2016 is The Collapse of Western Civilization by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. 

All new Evergreen undergraduates will have the opportunity to read the book this summer, to discuss it in seminar groups during Orientation Week with other students and faculty, and to hear an address by author Naomi Oreskes at the Convocation ceremony. (It’s short enough to read more than once—all the more reason to make notes and mark it up!)

How We Will Use This Book

We are delighted to have Naomi Oreskes, co-author of The Collapse of Western Civilization, the common read for all incoming undergraduate students, as our keynote speaker at Wednesday’s All-Campus Convocation at 10 am in the Costantino Recreation Center. It’s an event when all students, faculty, and staff are invited to come together and begin the academic year.

Please bring your book to Convocation so that Naomi Oreskes might sign it after the formal program ends. The Collapse of Western Civilization will also be a feature of the two faculty-led sessions during New Student Orientation so be sure to bring your copy, along with a notebook and writing utensil, to those sessions as well.

About the Book

Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science and affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, and an internationally renowned historian of science and author of numerous books and peer-reviewed papers. Having started her career as a geologist, she received her B.S. from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London, worked for three years as an exploration geologist in the Australian outback, and then returned to the United States to receive an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in geological research and history of science from Stanford University.

In The Collapse of Western Civilization, Oreskes and co-author Erik M. Conway present a haunting, provocative work of science-based fiction, and imagine a world devastated by climate change. Dramatizing the science in ways traditional nonfiction cannot, the book reasserts the importance of scientists and the work they do and reveals the self-serving interests of the so called “carbon combustion complex” that have turned the practice of science into political fodder. Based on sound scholarship and yet unafraid to speak boldly, this book provides a welcome moment of clarity amid the cacophony of climate change literature.

Reading and Thinking About the Book

Once you’re here at Evergreen, you’ll be reading books like this and discussing them with your fellow students and faculty. Since you’re reading this on your own this summer, we’ve prepared some resources to keep you company as you read and think about this short but densely packed book.

• Tips on reading
• Tips on annotation
• Tips on reading this book (PDF)—Print it out and use it as a bookmark.