The great leveler : violence and the history of inequality from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century / Walter Scheidel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scheidel, Walter, 1966- author.

Series:

Princeton economic history of the Western world

The Princeton economic history of the Western world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Equality--History.

Equality.

History.

Violence--History.

Violence.

HISTORY / World.

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History.

HISTORY / Social History.

Local Subjects:

HISTORY / World.

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History.

HISTORY / Social History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xvii, 504 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2017]

Summary:

"Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world. Ever since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilization. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality. The "Four Horsemen" of leveling--mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues--have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich. Scheidel identifies and examines these processes, from the crises of the earliest civilizations to the cataclysmic world wars and communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future. An essential contribution to the debate about inequality, The Great Leveler provides important new insights about why inequality is so persistent--and why it is unlikely to decline anytime soon." -- Publisher's description

Contents:

Introduction: The Challenge of Inequality

A Brief History Of Inequality. The Rise of Inequality

Empires of Inequality

Up and Down

War. Total War

The Great Compression

Preindustrial Warfare and Civil War

Revolution. Communism

Before Lenin

Collapse. State Failure and Systems Collapse

Plague. The Black Death

Pandemics, Famine, and War

Alternatives. Reform, Recession, and Representation

Economic Development and Education

What If ? From History to Counterfactuals

Inequality Redux And The Future Of Leveling.

In Our Time

What Does the Future Hold?

Appendix: The Limits of Inequality.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780691165028

0691165025

OCLC:

958799667