Against the grain A deep history of the earliest states

Recent archaeological theories showing that the hunter/gatherer life is easier for most people than the agricultural life, and that agriculture, sedentism, and the origins of civilization neither arose together nor inevitably followed one another are revelatory to political scientist Scott (Yale) and probably to other readers, including other social scientists. Scott first condenses the best knowledge available on domestication, early state formation, and the relation between early states and the people of their hinterlands, and then looks at the human and ecological consequences of the state form. He concludes that domestication, broadly speaking, is control over reproduction; that cereal grains are the foundation of all early civilizations because they are easy to tax; and that infectious diseases of crowding are critical in understanding the demographic fragility of the early state. In expanding on these themes, he focuses primarily on Mesopotamia. While none of his points are new to this reviewer, an anthropological archaeologist, Scott presents them clearly, and his arguments are well-supported. Readers who don't know that the lives of peasants are nastier, more brutish, and shorter than those of hunter/gatherers, and that slavery accompanied civilization, will have their eyes opened by this book. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. --Lucille Lewis Johnson, Vassar College