Equality: The Impossible Quest

by Martin van Creveld

All over the Western world gaps between rich and poor are widening—or the headlines say. Nobody has done more to spread this view than the French economic historian Thomas Piketty, whose best-selling volume, Capital in the Twentieth Century, not only documents the process but represents one long call for reducing the gaps so as to create a more equal society. But what is equality? Who invented the idea, when, where, and why? How did it develop, grow, mature, and interact with other ideas? How was it implemented, and at what cost? Are we getting closer to it? What is the promise? What is the threat?

There is equality before God and equality here on earth. There is natural equality and the kind of equality that society creates. Some people, incidentally, want to extend equality to animals and plants as well. There is equality of body and there is equality of mind. There is economic equality and there is equality before the law. There is civic equality and there is political equality and there is equality of opportunity and there is equality in front of death. There is equality among individuals and there is equality among groups, nations, and races. In Aldous Huxley’s celebrated book, Brave New World, this truth is held to be self-evident that men are equal in respect to their physico-chemical makeups, but in no other way. The list is seemingly endless

The Impossible Quest considers all these problems and more. It begins by considering our primate relatives as well as various historical societies that never heard of equality. Next, it traces the development of the idea and its implementation in various societies throughout history. This include ancient Greek equality as realized in Athens and Sparta, monastic equality in both East and West, social revolts aimed at establishing equality, utopian equality, liberal equality of the American and French Revolutionary varieties, socialist, communist and kibbutz equalities, Nazi equality, the equality of women and minorities, and biological equality through medical and genetic science. The last chapter deals with the greatest equalizer of all, death.

Genres: Politics, History, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Ebooks, Political Science

293 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 17, 2015

About the author

Martin Levi van Creveld is an Israeli military historian and theorist.

Van Creveld was born in the Netherlands in the city of Rotterdam, and has lived in Israel since shortly after his birth. He holds degrees from the London School of Economics and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he has been on the faculty since 1971. He is the author of seventeen books on military history and strategy, of which Command in War (1985), Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton (1977, 2nd edition 2004), The Transformation of War (1991), The Sword and the Olive (1998) and The Rise and Decline of the State (1999) are among the best known. Van Creveld has lectured or taught at many strategic institutes in the Western world, including the U.S. Naval War College.

- wikipedia.org

Reviews

[Jonathan Sargent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic, with two qualms.

1. A lack of sources for later claims about inequality in the latter chapters of the book. Thankfully the rest of the book is sourced immaculately.
2. One might do better just reading the ends of each chapter and then the conclusion. The dirt is in the details however. Some awkard phrasing here and there as well, due to English being Creveld's... fourth language. But the book is well written for the most part, don't think you'll be getting into gibberish. Just some awkward phrasig here and there.

Creveld sets out to document the history of equality through mankind. He is, for the most part, completely and utterly without bias. Naturally being a Jewish conservative intellectual who specializes in military history, his views slip in quite a bit through his commentary on Jews under the Third Reich and the history of socialism and communism in the 20th century.

It's not a magnum opus, nor does it claim to be, but it is a good starting point just on how human societies have treated others and themselves. (Spoilers: for the vast majority of history, inequality has been the norm and has been enforced as proper and natural.)

Creveld covers primates, primitive human societies, chiefdoms, Rome, Greece, ancient Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Enlightenment thinkers, communes, utopias, the Soviet Union, America and a whole lot more. Highly recommended for those interested in anthropology and history.

[John Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Truly Equitable Review of Equality

tldr version: In Equality: The Impossible Quest Martin van Creveld reviews equality as an intellectual phenomenon and as a historic reality. To that end he examines how egalitarian past human societies have been, how our own civilization has advanced equality, and how equality will likely be challenged and, more importantly, challenge humanity in the years to come. With a subtle yet piercing prose, van Creveld carefully makes his case that full and complete equality is a task that is neither achievable nor desirable. Regardless of whether one agrees with van Creveld, his work demands to be carefully read and considered for its breadth in subject matter and depth of analysis.

Long version: Martin van Creveld's Equality contends that equality, unlike liberty and justice, can never be established in a lasting or desirable way. As even a cursory overview of his chapters titles reveal, van Creveld thoroughly looks for equality in nature and history before turning his attention to the modern crusade to make all men and women equal. His chapter on animals and early human societies provides a great basis to present the Greek “miracle” of either political and economic equality that Athena and Sparta respectively achieved. Likewise, his chapter on the hierarchy of Rome and its medieval successor of feudalism gives him a great starting point to argue that even in Europe’s history equality was only partially accomplished in monasteries and only fully worked out in utopian works of words. Carefully noting their strengths and atrocities, van Creveld then examines liberal and socialist calls for equality.
At the center of his work, intentional or not, van Creveld looks at the most hated regime in the modern memory - Nazi Germany - to see how racial equality was implemented for the pure of blood. This chapter gives van Creveld his greatest argument against equality being an absolute good: if the Nazi’s could understand themselves as creating equality for the race, who could not use equality to further their own agenda? By fairly and almost dispassionately reviewing how the National Socialists sought equality with great malice, van Creveld demonstrates that equality often does not lead to virtue or human flourishing but millions in mass graves.
Leaving behind the atrocities of war criminals, van Creveld looks at how human society has been transformed in the West by the movement to make all men and women equal. Far from creating merely a balanced playing field, the bureaucracies of contemporary governments have sought to reversely discriminate those who were not in the minority. If one's ethnic group achieves more than others, he might very well be held back from success. If this is not a form of madness, then the chapter on what might be in store for and against equality certainly qualifies. With advances in genetics and medicine, equality looks less achievable than ever before. For what parents who could improve their children with greater intelligence and beauty would not? How would ever regulate the pandora box of genetics for equality? What would such regulation do to people who were made more equal without their consent? Lastly, van Creveld touches upon how death has and hast not been a great equalizer. The tombs of the pharaohs clearly show that some are much better remembered in death than others.
Martin van Creveld deserves to be commended for this expansive and well researched book. A lesser author might have chosen to simplify the complex reality that equality has been, is, and will likely continue to be in the future. Instead, van Creveld highlights the most important features of equality while noting the vagaries. Those who contend that complete and total equality is doable and good have a worthy adversary in van Creveld - he is fair but pulls no punches. More importantly, his work presents everyone with a much needed reflection on how good for humanity equality truly is.

[Langa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. I don't have a review because the book is that informative. I'd rather leave the reviewing to the professionals. However, one point did stick out to me the most... Although death may be the greatest equalizer of all, those who are more equal than others during life, tend to be etched in the living memory of humans far beyond their death and those who aren't, can be rather forgettable. Monuments, streets, neighborhoods and towns tend to be named after the more equal and thus, equality is truly impossible. That's the strongest point, in my opinion.

[Gintas Kamaitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very balanced discussion of the paradox of how the pursuit of equality can in itself create the very inequality and injustice it purports to fight.