The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality
23 hrs. 51 min.
Language
Russian
Author
Walter Scheidel
Author
Walter Scheidel
Narrator
Yury Lazarev
Narrator
Yury Lazarev
Description
Violence and the history of inequality from the Stone Age to the 21st century.
Walter Scheidel (sometimes called Walter Scheidel in English) is an Austrian historian, Stanford professor, specialist in economic history and historical demography. He is the author of a striking historical concept that links violence to the level of inequality. Stable, peaceful times favor economic inequality, while brutal upheavals reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. Scheidel identifies four main reasons for such a reduction, comparing them to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—the symbol of chaos and global catastrophe. These four horsemen are war, revolution, the collapse of the state, and large-scale epidemics. All factors except the last are associated with unlimited violence, and without exception they bring endless suffering and millions of victims. That is why Scheidel calls violence the “great equalizer.”
Walter Scheidel (sometimes called Walter Scheidel in English) is an Austrian historian, Stanford professor, specialist in economic history and historical demography. He is the author of a striking historical concept that links violence to the level of inequality. Stable, peaceful times favor economic inequality, while brutal upheavals reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. Scheidel identifies four main reasons for such a reduction, comparing them to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—the symbol of chaos and global catastrophe. These four horsemen are war, revolution, the collapse of the state, and large-scale epidemics. All factors except the last are associated with unlimited violence, and without exception they bring endless suffering and millions of victims. That is why Scheidel calls violence the “great equalizer.”
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