It is also helpful to look at some really bad periods and compare to today.

These were some horrible times in Europe.

Each had profound consequences all across the spectrum - economics, politics, religion, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_invasion_of_Europe

1300s.

How policy drives everything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Vienne

The Templars were the largest multinational corporation at the time. Philip systematically dismantled the large non-state organizations of his day thus leaving Europe with no social capital.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_of_1315%E2%80%931317

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_of_the_Late_Middle_Ages


1600s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War

And long ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Before_Civilization

And a very influential work that tried to synthesize from many fields and is still very influential today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_%28book%29

Our tribal past is still very much with us:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments