Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C. Scott instant download

Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C. Scott instant download

At its most ambitious, this work attempts to “connect the dots” of existing knowledge in ways that may be illuminating or suggestive. Over the past decades the astonishing advances in our understanding about early civilizations  have served to radically revise or totally reverse what we thought we knew.Early states had to capture and hold much of their population by forms of bondage and were plagued by the epidemics of crowding. They were fragile and liable to collapse, but the ensuing “dark ages” may often have marked an actual improvement in human welfare. Finally, there is a strong case to be made that life outside the state—life as a “barbarian”—may often have been materially easier, freer, and healthier than life at least for the non-elites inside.