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Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States

A popular perception both in and out of academia is this: a few millennia ago, agriculture let hunter-gatherers settle down and form permanent societies and governments, which provided better living conditions compared to unsettled nomadic communities. In Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States, the political scientist James C. Scott attempts to disprove this perception about the origin of states and governments. Scott argues that formal states were actually established centuries after agriculture and sedentism, and these early states did not necessarily provide better conditions than hunter-gatherer societies. This book shows the dark sides of living under a formal state between roughly 6,500 to 1,600 BCE. Written in a conversational yet credible manner and with 13 graphs, timelines, and photos for visual presentation, Scott’s book is suitable for both professional scholars outside of the field of anthropology and general readers enthusiastic toward early civilizations.

Sedentism, Scott believes, first happened in resource-rich wetlands where hunting and gathering were enough to maintain a community.

James C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology at Yale University. His previous books, such as Seeing Like a State (1998) and The Art of Not Being Governed (2009), examine the historical perspectives of people outside or under institutional governments while avoiding the political bias that formal states apply to their documentation. Continuing with this goal, in Against the Grain, Scott reminds readers that 4,000 years ago, non-sedentary people might have enjoyed better lives and outnumbered states’ population, yet early states are more popular today because they systematically documented themselves. Sedentism, Scott believes, first happened in resource-rich wetlands where hunting and gathering were enough to maintain a community. The transition to agriculture - which led to formal states - was not completely charming. Having a structured institution means living with established community borders, stratification, taxation, and disease.

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