Tainter, J. A. (1988). The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tainter’s argument that societies solve easy problems first, so each added increment of sociopolitical complexity yields declining marginal returns while costing more energy to sustain; once marginal returns turn negative, collapse becomes a rational response. The book develops the case across the Western Roman Empire, the Classic Maya, and the Chacoan cultures, and supplies energy-accounting data (BTUs per inflation-adjusted dollar of United States energy production, 1960 to 1976; patents per scientist through the twentieth century) that anchor the deceleration argument in measurable form.