{"title":"Walter Scheidel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWalter Scheidel\u003c\/strong\u003e explores the sweeping forces that shape human history, delving into themes of power, inequality, and societal transformation. His works blend rigorous scholarship with accessible prose, offering readers a fresh perspective on ancient and modern civilizations alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom examining the fall of empires to analysing economic and social upheavals, Scheidel's books provide thought-provoking insights that challenge conventional narratives. Ideal for those passionate about \u003cem\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Military\u003c\/em\u003e and seeking a deeper understanding through scholarly yet engaging analysis.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-great-leveler-by-walter-scheidel-9780691271842","title":"The Great Leveler","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow only violence and catastrophes have consistently reduced inequality throughout world history.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAre 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. \u003cem\u003eThe Great Leveler\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEver since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilisation. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality. The 'Four Horsemen' of levelling—mass-mobilisation 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 civilisations 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAn essential contribution to the debate about inequality, \u003cem\u003eThe Great Leveler\u003c\/em\u003e provides important new insights about why inequality is so persistent and why it is unlikely to decline anytime soon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46850077819116,"sku":"9780691271842","price":52.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2705563482434.jpg?v=1759078834"},{"product_id":"what-is-ancient-history-by-walter-scheidel-9780691236650","title":"What Is Ancient History?","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom one of today's most innovative ancient historians, a provocative new vision of why ancient history matters and why it needs to be told in a radically different, global way.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt's easy to think that ancient history is, well, ancient history—obsolete, irrelevant, unjustifiably focused on Greece and Rome, and at risk of extinction. In \u003ci\u003eWhat Is Ancient History?\u003c\/i\u003e, Walter Scheidel presents a compelling case for a new kind of ancient history—a global history that captures antiquity's pivotal role as a decisive phase in human development, one that provided the shared foundation of our world and continues to shape our lives today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor Scheidel, ancient history is when the earliest versions of today's ways of life were created and spread—from farming, mining, and engineering to housing and transportation, cities and government, writing and belief systems. Transforming the planet, this process unfolded all over the world, in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas, often at different times, sometimes haltingly but ultimately unstoppably. Yet it's rarely studied or taught that way. Since the eighteenth century, Western intellectuals have dismembered the ancient world, driven not only by their quest for professional expertise but also by nationalism, colonialism, racism, and the idealisation of Greece and Rome. Specialised scholarship has fractured into numerous academic niches, obscuring broader patterns and dynamics and keeping us from understanding just how much humanity has long had in common.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe time has come, Scheidel argues, to put the ancient world back together—by moving beyond the limitations of Greco-Roman 'classics', by systematically comparing ancient societies, and by exploring early exchanges and connections between them. The time has come, in other words, for an ancient history for everyone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46852641390828,"sku":"9780691236650","price":104.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9626705c1e32e6aa98a3ca6b1e8410ec.jpg?v=1759168216"},{"product_id":"escape-from-rome-by-walter-scheidel-9780691216737","title":"Escape from Rome","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2019: Economics\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of the Evening Standard's Best Books of 2019\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFinalist for the PROSE Award in Archaeology and Ancient History, Association of American Publishers\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe fall of the Roman Empire has long been considered one of the greatest disasters in history. But in this groundbreaking book, Walter Scheidel argues that Rome's dramatic collapse was actually the best thing that ever happened, clearing the path for Europe's economic rise and the creation of the modern age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRanging across the entire premodern world, \u003cem\u003eEscape from Rome\u003c\/em\u003e offers new answers to some of the biggest questions in history: Why did the Roman Empire appear? Why did nothing like it ever return to Europe? And, above all, why did Europeans come to dominate the world? In an absorbing narrative that begins with ancient Rome but stretches far beyond it, from Byzantium to China and from Genghis Khan to Napoleon, Scheidel shows how the demise of Rome and the enduring failure of empire-building on European soil launched an economic transformation that changed the continent and ultimately the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'An outstanding, epic history of the fall of the Roman Empire and rise of the European West.' - Simon Sebag Montefiore, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eEvening Standard\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'A remarkable book.' - Peter Brown, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Scheidel marshals his facts with verve and force.' - Robert Colvile, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'Makes a bracing case...What did the Romans do for us? Scheidel does not give the usual answers.' - Peter Stothard, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eEscape from Rome\u003c\/em\u003e deserves to be taken very seriously...This is a fiercely intelligent, closely argued book.' - Peter Thonemann, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47000608899308,"sku":"9780691216737","price":44.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2154513482434.jpg?v=1763288928"},{"product_id":"the-great-leveler-by-walter-scheidel-9780691183251","title":"The Great Leveler","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAre 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 it never dies peacefully.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Great Leveler\u003c\/em\u003e 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. The \"Four Horsemen\" of leveling—mass-mobilisation warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eToday, 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, \u003cem\u003eThe Great Leveler\u003c\/em\u003e provides important new insights about why inequality is so persistent—and why it is unlikely to decline anytime soon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47428263018732,"sku":"9780691183251","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780691183251.jpg?v=1774497333"},{"product_id":"escape-from-rome-by-walter-scheidel-9780691172187","title":"Escape from Rome","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe gripping story of how the end of the Roman Empire was the beginning of the modern world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe fall of the Roman Empire has long been considered one of the greatest disasters in history. But in this groundbreaking book, Walter Scheidel argues that Rome's dramatic collapse was actually the best thing that ever happened, clearing the path for Europe's economic rise and the creation of the modern age.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRanging across the entire premodern world, \u003cem\u003eEscape from Rome\u003c\/em\u003e offers new answers to some of the biggest questions in history: Why did the Roman Empire appear? Why did nothing like it ever return to Europe? And, above all, why did Europeans come to dominate the world?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn an absorbing narrative that begins with ancient Rome but stretches far beyond it, from Byzantium to China and from Genghis Khan to Napoleon, Scheidel shows how the demise of Rome and the enduring failure of empire-building on European soil ensured competitive fragmentation between and within states. This rich diversity encouraged political, economic, scientific, and technological breakthroughs that allowed Europe to surge ahead while other parts of the world lagged behind, burdened as they were by traditional empires and predatory regimes that lived by conquest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt wasn't until Europe \u003cem\u003e\"escaped\" from Rome\u003c\/em\u003e that it launched an economic transformation that changed the continent and ultimately the world. What has the Roman Empire ever done for us? Fall and go away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47605647638764,"sku":"9780691172187","price":118.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/c2702dace35cb8b8b10bddd6b24eca79.jpg?v=1788151112"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/walter-scheidel.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}