The evolution of civilizations : an introduction to historical analysis

"The Evolution of Civilizations" is a comprehensive and perceptive look at the factors behind the rise and fall of civilisations. Quigley defines a civilisation as "a producing society with an instrument of expansion". A civilisation's decline is not inevitable but occurs when its instrument of expansion is transformed into an institution -- that is, when social arrangements that meet real social needs are transformed into social institutions serving their own purposes regardless of real social needs.