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The Great Leveler
Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century
By: Walter Scheidel
Paperback | 25 September 2018 | Edition Number 1
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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.
About the Author
Walter Scheidel is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History, and a Kennedy-Grossman Fellow in Human Biology at Stanford University. The author or editor of seventeen previous books, he has published widely on pre-modern social and economic history, demography, and comparative history. He lives in Palo Alto, California.
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"One of The Wall Street Journal's What Business Leaders Read in 2017, chosen by Mohamed A. El-Erian"
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"strategy+business Best Business Book of 2017 in Economics"
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"Shortlisted for the 2017 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award"
"One of the Economist.com "2017 Books of the Year" in Economics and Business"
"Selected for The HCSS Bookshelf (chosen by Stephan De Spiegeleire) 2017"
"Shortlisted for the 2017 Cundill History Prize, McGill University"
"One of The Wall Street Journal's What Business Leaders Read in 2017"
"One of the CNBC 13 Best Business Books of 2017"
ISBN: 9780691183251
ISBN-10: 0691183252
Series: The Princeton Economic History of the Western World
Published: 25th September 2018
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number of Pages: 528
Audience: College, Tertiary and University
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: US
Edition Number: 1
Dimensions (cm): 20.5 x 13.8 x 4.6
Weight (kg): 0.5
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You Can Find This Book In
This product is categorised by
- Non-FictionHistoryGeneral & World History
- Non-FictionEconomicsEconomic History
- Non-FictionHistorySpecific Events & Topics in HistorySocial & Cultural History
- Non-FictionSociety & CultureSocial Issues & ProcessesViolence in Society
- Non-FictionSociology & AnthropologySociologyPopulation & Demography
- Non-FictionEconomicsWelfare Economics
- Non-FictionEconomicsEconomic & Financial Crises & Disasters
- Non-FictionSociety & CultureSocial GroupsSocial Classes