MARC record from Internet Archive

LEADER: 04301cam a2200541Ii 4500
001 12487298
005 20170619164414.0
008 160918t20172017njua b 001 0 eng d
019 $a958350838
020 $a9780691165028$q(hardcover)
020 $a0691165025$q(hardcover)
024 $a99971982539
035 $a(OCoLC)ocn958799667
035 $a(OCoLC)958799667$z(OCoLC)958350838
035 $a(NNC)12487298
040 $aBTCTA$beng$erda$cBTCTA$dYDX$dBDX$dEYM$dTFW$dLSD$dMEAUC$dZLM$dOCLCF$dCZA$dPAU$dCHVBK$dOCLCO$dA7U$dOSU$dVLR
050 4 $aHM821$b.S235 2017
082 04 $a305.5/12$223
100 1 $aScheidel, Walter,$d1966-$eauthor.
245 14 $aThe great leveler :$bviolence and the history of inequality from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century /$cWalter Scheidel.
246 30 $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
264 1 $aPrinceton, New Jersey ;$aOxford :$bPrinceton University Press,$c[2017]
264 4 $c©2017
300 $axvii, 504 pages :$billustrations ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier
490 1 $aThe Princeton economic history of the Western world
505 0 $aIntroduction: The Challenge of Inequality -- A Brief History Of Inequality. The Rise of Inequality -- Empires of Inequality -- Up and Down -- War. Total War -- The Great Compression -- Preindustrial Warfare and Civil War -- Revolution. Communism -- Before Lenin -- Collapse. State Failure and Systems Collapse -- Plague. The Black Death -- Pandemics, Famine, and War -- Alternatives. Reform, Recession, and Representation -- Economic Development and Education -- What If ? From History to Counterfactuals -- Inequality Redux And The Future Of Leveling. -- In Our Time -- What Does the Future Hold? -- Appendix: The Limits of Inequality.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 457-493) and index.
520 $a"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 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
650 0 $aEquality$xHistory.
650 0 $aViolence$xHistory.
650 7 $aEquality.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst00914456
650 7 $aViolence.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01167224
650 4 $aHISTORY / World.
650 4 $aBUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History.
650 4 $aHISTORY / Social History.
650 7 $aUngleichheit$2gnd
650 7 $aEinkommensverteilung$2gnd
650 7 $aZerstörung$2gnd
650 7 $aVerteilungsgerechtigkeit$2gnd
650 7 $aKrieg$2gnd
650 7 $aUmweltkatastrophe$2gnd
655 7 $aHistory.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01411628
830 0 $aPrinceton economic history of the Western world.
852 00 $bswx$hHM821$i.S235 2017g