
The Great Leveler
Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century
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Narrated by:
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Joel Richards
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By:
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Walter Scheidel
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 20th 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.
©2017 Princeton University Press (P)2017 TantorListeners also enjoyed...




















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A depressing but informative read
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The more society attempts to control nature, the more nature resists that same control.
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Fascinating and astonishingly broad
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Spot On
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Amazing book that shows the inequality of the past
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As depressing as it is convincing
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Both immense in scope and tragic.
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The four horseman of the past are not desired for the future.
Inequality is inevitable.
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Depressingly Essential
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Important insights, tediously told
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