The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by Walter Scheidel

A dense read — this book is all about facts, facts, facts. And references for the facts. There’s no plottwist at the end, the summary says it all: basically ever since the first human had some surplus and put it away, inequality has been rising. And sometimes it was interrupted by a war, a plague, or something as great. Gentle tinkering with taxes was not on the list.

★★★☆☆

(528 pages, ISBN: 0691165025, Worldcat, Open Library)

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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