000 02560cam a2200325 i 4500
008 160902t20172017njuad b 001 0 eng d
020 _a9780691165028 (hardcover)
020 _a0691165025 (hardcover)
040 _aBTCTA
_cBTCTA
050 0 0 _aHM821
_b.S235 2017
082 0 0 _a305
_bSCH
100 1 _aScheidel, Walter,
245 1 4 _aThe great leveler :
_bviolence and the history of inequality from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century /
246 3 0 _aViolence and the history of Inequality from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century
246 3 _aViolence and the history of inequality from the Stone Age to the 21st century
260 _aPrinceton :
_bPrinceton University Press,
_c2017.
300 _axvii, 504 pages :
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 457-493) and index.
520 _aThis 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
590 _alje 08/01/2019, ijb, 23/01/2019
591 _aLoans
650 0 _aEquality
650 0 _aViolence
650 4 _aWorld history.
650 4 _aEconomic history.
650 4 _aSocial history.
856 4 1 _uhttp://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i10921.pdf
942 _2ddc
_cBOOK
949 _a305 SCH
999 _c11121
_d11121