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Trust: A History
Today there is much talk of a 'crisis of trust'; a crisis which is almost certainly genuine, but usually misunderstood. A History offers a new perspective on the ways in which trust and distrust have functioned in past society, providing an empirical and historical basis against which the present crisis can be examined, and suggesting ways in which the concept of trust can be used as a tool to understand our own and other societies.
Geoffrey Hosking argues that social trust is mediated through symbolic systems, such as religion and money, and the institutions associated with them, churches and banks. Historically, these institutions have nourished trust, but the resulting trust networks have tended to create quite tough boundaries around themselves, across which distrust is projected against outsiders. Hosking also shows how nation-states have been particularly good at absorbing symbolic systems and generating trust among large numbers of people, while also erecting rigid boundaries around themselves, despite an increasingly global economy. He asserts that in the modern world, it has become common to entrust major resources to institutions we know little about, and suggests that we need to learn from historical experience and temper this with more traditional forms of trust, or become an ever more distrustful society, with potentially very destabilising consequences.
Geoffrey Hosking argues that social trust is mediated through symbolic systems, such as religion and money, and the institutions associated with them, churches and banks. Historically, these institutions have nourished trust, but the resulting trust networks have tended to create quite tough boundaries around themselves, across which distrust is projected against outsiders. Hosking also shows how nation-states have been particularly good at absorbing symbolic systems and generating trust among large numbers of people, while also erecting rigid boundaries around themselves, despite an increasingly global economy. He asserts that in the modern world, it has become common to entrust major resources to institutions we know little about, and suggests that we need to learn from historical experience and temper this with more traditional forms of trust, or become an ever more distrustful society, with potentially very destabilising consequences.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published July 15, 2014
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About the author
Geoffrey Hosking
33 books38 followersGeoffrey Alan Hosking is a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union and formerly Leverhulme Research Professor of Russian History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College, London.
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March 16, 2025
This book is a slept-on banger that presents a fantastic paradigm for interpreting politics, money, religion, and human life all through the concept of trust - how it's built, broken, maintained, and instituted in society and throughout history. This is the perfect pairing for Noah Yuval Harrari's Nexus as it expands on the "why" and "how" of human information networks creating social order. Huge shoutout to ChatGPT for recommending this obscure academic book on trust networks and systems.
Cool. here's the summary:
Trust is essential to human social order and cooperation (our animal superpower). Without it, we'd be living in constant paranoia in pure dysfunction - nothing would work. That's why, we smart monkeys over history have devised "trust networks" - trusted institutions that bring people together via a shared belief and allow them to work with each other without fear.
How does this work? Primarily, trust institutions/networks provide humans a social environment where everyone feels safe through mutual aid, are overseen to do the right thing, and dutifully disciplined if acting untrustworthy. This sounds simple but is extremely difficult because of the collective action problem, difficulty in building trust, and extreme ease in breaking trust.
Throughout human history, there has been a gradual widening of trust borders at the expense of depth. What does this mean? The author posits there are 2 axes of trust, strong and weak, thin and thick. Strength of trust indicates how large of an impact it may have on you (putting money in a bank is strong, lending a small book is weak). Depth of trust indicates the relationship and knowledge you have with the other party (thick is best friends since childhood, thin is don't even know who it is).
How has trust progressed over time due to size of trust borders and primary trust institutions?
Before civilization, humans were in small tribes of 30-50. Their main trust institutions were those of kinship and community. Everyone felt safe because hunting and gathering was shared, the sick were taken care of. If someone screwed someone else over, the tribe would expel that member. They couldn't trust the outside world, but they could each other.
Fast forward, agriculture, no more nomadic-pastoralism, people start settling down into small towns of several hundred to thousands. How do you build peace and social order? Religion. Everyone shares belief in same deity, what is right, what is wrong. The religious centers took care of the needy offering food, medical care, and community. The borders of trust widen, but the depth weakens. Still, religious institutions offer a convenient way to immediately trust a large group of people. And it's helpful to keep out wrongdoers by saying there is an ever-present watcher who will punish you if you do wrong. However, as societies become larger and start to interact with those of other religions, you can quickly see how religion does not scale and the rigid trust lines it enacts. Look no further than the crusades, jihad, witch hunts, and any other form of violence as a means of peace.
Then comes the nation state and money. The nation-state is a large collective of these once independent cities that have come together due to shared culture, language, and history. The strongest nation-states align in belief as well. The nation-state has taken on the primary role of trust building, providing welfare and healthcare for the needy, creating legal and police systems to enforce order, and enabling people to cooperate with one another. However, what happens when these systems deteriorate as is the case in the U.S. right now in 2025? What are the root causes of these deteriorations. The author would argue a lot of these come from another trust network, that of money.
Money is one of the great trust network inventions of humanity. It allows those with the thinnest amount of trust the ability to cooperate and work together. However, it is devoid of value and morals. Without a strong corrective system like religion, the nation-state, or community/kinship to hold it accountable, it can metastasize into soulless exploitation and the erosion of trust depth. That is the reality of the world we live in today.
The biggest takeaway in my opinion is the absolute necessity of trust institutions to maintain and build generalized social trust - without which our society becomes dysfunctional. That means our institutions need to take care of us to make us feel safe, institute effective systems of justice, and help us to trust each other. The basis of this is creating better self-correcting mechanisms and institutions that help us put trust in the trustworthy and hold each other accountable. In times of rampant distrust, one must counterintuitively widen the radius/border of trust and find positive sum games. As it has been shown in game theory economics, the best strategy for repeated interaction survival is mutual cooperation.
The author explores many implementations and effects of trust institutions throughout history, many focused on Europe and Russia, which makes sense given the author's professorship on eastern European history. I won't spoil it all, but I can say the anecdotes are engaging and pertinent to today's world. The especially relevant stories are those covering the breakdown of trust between nations and the balance of international commerce and national politics. At a time of intense generalized social distrust, many stupid leaders are choosing to create rigid lines of distrust externally in the hopes to build greater trust internally. At the same time, our media and echo chamber algorithms generate animosity and even greater social distrust internally.
I'm not sure what's going to happen. It's a dark time in human history, but for those with the privilege to dream and bring people together - I believe humanity is in need of evolution in our trust institutions to expand the borders of trust and build back the depth and meaning in society.
Cool. here's the summary:
Trust is essential to human social order and cooperation (our animal superpower). Without it, we'd be living in constant paranoia in pure dysfunction - nothing would work. That's why, we smart monkeys over history have devised "trust networks" - trusted institutions that bring people together via a shared belief and allow them to work with each other without fear.
How does this work? Primarily, trust institutions/networks provide humans a social environment where everyone feels safe through mutual aid, are overseen to do the right thing, and dutifully disciplined if acting untrustworthy. This sounds simple but is extremely difficult because of the collective action problem, difficulty in building trust, and extreme ease in breaking trust.
Throughout human history, there has been a gradual widening of trust borders at the expense of depth. What does this mean? The author posits there are 2 axes of trust, strong and weak, thin and thick. Strength of trust indicates how large of an impact it may have on you (putting money in a bank is strong, lending a small book is weak). Depth of trust indicates the relationship and knowledge you have with the other party (thick is best friends since childhood, thin is don't even know who it is).
How has trust progressed over time due to size of trust borders and primary trust institutions?
Before civilization, humans were in small tribes of 30-50. Their main trust institutions were those of kinship and community. Everyone felt safe because hunting and gathering was shared, the sick were taken care of. If someone screwed someone else over, the tribe would expel that member. They couldn't trust the outside world, but they could each other.
Fast forward, agriculture, no more nomadic-pastoralism, people start settling down into small towns of several hundred to thousands. How do you build peace and social order? Religion. Everyone shares belief in same deity, what is right, what is wrong. The religious centers took care of the needy offering food, medical care, and community. The borders of trust widen, but the depth weakens. Still, religious institutions offer a convenient way to immediately trust a large group of people. And it's helpful to keep out wrongdoers by saying there is an ever-present watcher who will punish you if you do wrong. However, as societies become larger and start to interact with those of other religions, you can quickly see how religion does not scale and the rigid trust lines it enacts. Look no further than the crusades, jihad, witch hunts, and any other form of violence as a means of peace.
Then comes the nation state and money. The nation-state is a large collective of these once independent cities that have come together due to shared culture, language, and history. The strongest nation-states align in belief as well. The nation-state has taken on the primary role of trust building, providing welfare and healthcare for the needy, creating legal and police systems to enforce order, and enabling people to cooperate with one another. However, what happens when these systems deteriorate as is the case in the U.S. right now in 2025? What are the root causes of these deteriorations. The author would argue a lot of these come from another trust network, that of money.
Money is one of the great trust network inventions of humanity. It allows those with the thinnest amount of trust the ability to cooperate and work together. However, it is devoid of value and morals. Without a strong corrective system like religion, the nation-state, or community/kinship to hold it accountable, it can metastasize into soulless exploitation and the erosion of trust depth. That is the reality of the world we live in today.
The biggest takeaway in my opinion is the absolute necessity of trust institutions to maintain and build generalized social trust - without which our society becomes dysfunctional. That means our institutions need to take care of us to make us feel safe, institute effective systems of justice, and help us to trust each other. The basis of this is creating better self-correcting mechanisms and institutions that help us put trust in the trustworthy and hold each other accountable. In times of rampant distrust, one must counterintuitively widen the radius/border of trust and find positive sum games. As it has been shown in game theory economics, the best strategy for repeated interaction survival is mutual cooperation.
The author explores many implementations and effects of trust institutions throughout history, many focused on Europe and Russia, which makes sense given the author's professorship on eastern European history. I won't spoil it all, but I can say the anecdotes are engaging and pertinent to today's world. The especially relevant stories are those covering the breakdown of trust between nations and the balance of international commerce and national politics. At a time of intense generalized social distrust, many stupid leaders are choosing to create rigid lines of distrust externally in the hopes to build greater trust internally. At the same time, our media and echo chamber algorithms generate animosity and even greater social distrust internally.
I'm not sure what's going to happen. It's a dark time in human history, but for those with the privilege to dream and bring people together - I believe humanity is in need of evolution in our trust institutions to expand the borders of trust and build back the depth and meaning in society.
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