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

Includes bibliographical references (pages 457-493) and index.

This book, which attempts to trace the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, shows that inequality never dies peacefully. According to the book, inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return. The book chart’s 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

lje 08/01/2019,
ijb, 23/01/2019

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