S’s Reviews > The Sources of Social Power: Volume 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760 > Status Update

It's as scholarly rigorous as Tainter's "Collapse," which is useful if you're a professional, but critique consumes a large portion of the text. (Don't get me wrong, Tainter's critiques of Spengler and Toynbee were exciting, too see your heroes expunged by an even greater force of reasoning is a thrill I recommend to all). Like eating vitamins. Necessary, but you have to chase it with brandy.