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Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- CONTENTS -- List of Figures and Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Challenge of Inequality -- PART I. A BRIEF HISTORY OF INEQUALITY -- 1. The Rise of Inequality -- 2. Empires of Inequality -- 3. Up and Down -- PART II. WAR -- 4. Total War -- 5. The Great Compression -- 6. Preindustrial Warfare and Civil War -- PART III. REVOLUTION -- 7. Communism -- 8. Before Lenin -- PART IV. COLLAPSE -- 9. State Failure and Systems Collapse -- PART V. PLAGUE -- 10. The Black Death -- 11. Pandemics, Famine, and War -- PART VI. ALTERNATIVES -- 12. Reform, Recession, and Representation -- 13. Economic Development and Education -- 14. What If ? From History to Counterfactuals -- PART VII. INEQUALITY REDUX AND THE FUTURE OF LEVELING -- 15. In Our Time -- 16. What Does the Future Hold? -- Appendix: The Limits of Inequality -- Bibliography -- Index

Two thousand years ago, the Qin/Han and Roman empires were the largest political entities of the ancient world, developing simultaneously yet independently at opposite ends of Eurasia. Although their territories constituted only a small percentage of the global land mass, these two Eurasian polities controlled up to half of the world population and endured longer than most pre-modern imperial states. Similarly, their eventual collapse occurred during the same time. The parallel nature of the Qin/Han and Roman empires has rarely been studied comparatively. Yet here is a collection of pioneering

"In this, the first comprehensive one-volume survey of the economies of classical antiquity, twenty-eight chapters summarise the current state of scholarship in their specialised fields and sketch new directions for research. The approach taken is both thematic, with chapters on the underlying determinants of economic performance, and chronological, with coverage of the whole of the Greek and Roman worlds extending from the Aegean Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. The contributors move beyond the substantivist-formalist debates that dominated twentieth-century scholarship and display a new interest in economic growth in antiquity. New methods for measuring economic development are explored, often combining textual and archaeological data that have previously been treated separately. Fully accessible to non-specialist, the volume represents a major advance in our understanding of the economic expansion that made the civilisation of the classical Mediterranean world possible."--Publisher's website

"This book offers readers a comprehensive and innovative introduction to the economy of the Roman Empire. Focusing on the principal determinants, features and consequences of Roman economic development and integrating additional web-based materials, it is designed as an up-to-date survey that is accessible to all audiences. Five main sections discuss theoretical approaches drawn from economics, labor regimes, the production of power and goods, various means of distribution from markets to predation, and the success and ultimate failure of the Roman economy. The book not only covers traditionally prominent features such as slavery, food production and monetization but also highlights the importance of previously neglected aspects such as the role of human capital, energy generation, rent-taking, logistics and human wellbeing, and convenes a group of five experts to debate the nature of Roman trade"--

This book offers readers a comprehensive and innovative introduction to the economy of the Roman Empire. Focusing on the principal determinants, features and consequences of Roman economic development and integrating additional web-based materials, it is designed as an up-to-date survey that is accessible to all audiences. Five main sections discuss theoretical approaches drawn from economics, labor regimes, the production of power and goods, various means of distribution from markets to predation, and the success and ultimate failure of the Roman economy. The book not only covers traditionally prominent features such as slavery, food production and monetization but also highlights the importance of previously neglected aspects such as the role of human capital, energy generation, rent-taking, logistics and human wellbeing, and convenes a group of five experts to debate the nature of Roman trade.

"This book offers readers a comprehensive and innovative introduction to the economy of the Roman Empire. Focusing on the principal determinants, features and consequences of Roman economic development and integrating additional web-based materials, it is designed as an up-to-date survey that is accessible to all audiences. Five main sections discuss theoretical approaches drawn from economics, labor regimes, the production of power and goods, various means of distribution from markets to predation, and the success and ultimate failure of the Roman economy. The book not only covers traditionally prominent features such as slavery, food production and monetization but also highlights the importance of previously neglected aspects such as the role of human capital, energy generation, rent-taking, logistics and human wellbeing, and convenes a group of five experts to debate the nature of Roman trade"--

Preliminary Material -- PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS IN ROMAN DEMOGRAPHY /Walter Scheidel -- THE SEASONAL BIRTHING CYCLE OF ROMAN WOMEN /Brent D. Shaw -- RECRUITMENT AND THE SIZE OF THE ROMAN POPULATION FROM THE THIRD TO THE FIRST CENTURY BCE /Elio Lo Cascio -- MORE IS WORSE: SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE POPULATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE /Bruce W. Frier -- URBAN POPULATION IN LATE ROMAN EGYPT AND THE END OF THE ANCIENT WORLD /Richard Alston -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS -- INDEX -- SUPPLEMENTS TO MNEMOSYNE.

Walter Scheidel's monumental new study traces the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, and shows that inequality never dies peacefully. His claim – that inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return – is of critical importance to debates about the future of equality.In this interview, IPPR Progressive Review discuss the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world and what lessons progressives can draw in trying to promote inequality in the future.