Brad’s Reviews > Humans: The 300,000-Year Struggle for Equality > Status Update

"There were models of what was possible for achieving a better world in a variety of places, from Communist-run Kerala to social democratic Sweden, and from Communist Cuba to capitalist but military-free Costa Rica."

Jesus Christ.

"Critics [label] it a dictatorship of a small group who enriched themselves on the backs of conquered peoples. But that is a caricature...What this centralized regime promised them was central planning and administration to guarantee protections against adversity." -

Chapter 4 conclusion...on the Incan Empire! Fair.

"The USSR failed to respect human rights." - Chapter 10 conclusion

Academic leftism. Sigh.

"Economic historian Robert C. Allen refutes the claims [of a "tragedy of the commons"]...noting that peasant assemblies, over the years, had made changes to improve yields. Their limited ability to apply new technologies was not the result of collective conservatism but rather collective poverty thanks to the high rents."

Allen's work keeps paying citational dividends re: efficiency of collective management.

"Yuval Harari's assertion that a mythical 'Agricultural Revolution' removed caring and carefree societies from the face of the earth is false. But David Graeber and David Wengrow's counter-claim that most agricultural societies retained the collective governance of foraging times is overblown."