AGAINST THE GRAIN

An Economist Best History Book 2017 History as it should be written Barry Cunliffe Guardian Scott hits the nail squarely on the head by exposing the staggering price our ancestors paid for civilization and political order Walter Scheidel Financial Times 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 a