Book Review
Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States
by James C. Scott
Publisher: Yale University Press, 2017
Print length 336 pages
Website: politicalscience.yale.edu/people/james-scott
An audio version of this review is available at anchor.fm.
About the Author
James C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science and codirector of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University.
About the Book
Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains, and governed by precursors of today’s states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative. The first agrarian states, says James C. Scott, were born of accumulations of domestications: first fire, then plants, livestock, subjects of the state, captives, and finally women in the patriarchal family — all of which can be viewed as a way of gaining control over reproduction.
Scott explores why we avoided sedentism and plow agriculture, the advantages of mobile subsistence, the unforeseeable disease epidemics arising from crowding plants, animals, and grain, and why all early states are based on millets and cereal grains and unfree labor. He also discusses the “barbarians” who long evaded state control, as a way of understanding continuing tension between states and non-subject peoples.
The book's Contents include:
INTRODUCTION. A Narrative in Tatters: What I Didn’t Know
ONE. The Domestication of Fire, Plants, Animals, and . . . Us
TWO. Landscaping the World: The Domus Complex
THREE. Zoonoses: A Perfect Epidemiological Storm
FOUR. Agro-ecology of the Early State
FIVE. Population Control: Bondage and War
SIX. Fragility of the Early State: Collapse as Disassembly
SEVEN. The Golden Age of the Barbarians
Endorsements
An Economist Best History Book 2017
Walter Scheidel, Financial Times says, “Scott hits the nail squarely on the head by exposing the staggering price our ancestors paid for civilization and political order.”
Tim Flannery, New York Review of Books says, “Scott’s research is extraordinarily meticulous and detailed, and the lives of his imagined first citizens are unlike anything existing today. . . . Against the Grain deserves a wide readership. It has made me look afresh at the urban world.”
This book's popularity is demonstrated in the fact that its Amazon rank is #13 in the category "Ancient Mesopotamia History".
Customer Reviews rate it an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars from 404 ratings.