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

by Walter Scheidel

How only violence and catastrophes have consistently reduced inequality throughout world history

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691271844
• ISBN13: 9780691271842
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 528 Pages