Name: The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality From the Stone age to the Twenty-First Century (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
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Author: Walter Scheidel
ISBN: 9780691183251

portada The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality From the Stone age to the Twenty-First Century (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)

The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality From the Stone age to the Twenty-First Century (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)

Type

Physical Book

Author

Walter Scheidel

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Year

2018

Language

English

Pages

528

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

20.3 x 13.5 x 3.8 cm

Weight

0.50 kg.

ISBN13

9780691183251

Synopsis "The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality From the Stone age to the Twenty-First Century (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World) "

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 it never dies peacefully. 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. The "Four Horsemen" of leveling--mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues--have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich. 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.

Walter Scheidel

(Author)

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Walter Scheidel is a professor of Humanities and Classics and History at Stanford University. His research spans from ancient social and economic history to premodern historical demography, focusing on inequality and state formation. He has written or co-edited 21 books and published more than 260 articles and reviews

Among his most notable works is The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (2017), which analyzes the evolution of inequality throughout history. Another notable work is Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity (2019), where he explores the fall of the Roman Empire and its implications for subsequent economic development. These publications fall within the genre of economic and social history.

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