Author

Publication

2005-08-25 - Pi Press

Language

English

Word Count

101,250 words, Guess

Page Count

405 pages

Identifiers

  • ISBN-100131499963
  • ISBN-139780131499966
  • Goodreads1122562
  • LibraryThing401924
  • Open LibraryOL7336878M

Classifications

  • LCCD20 .T87 2006

Description

Like Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Peter Turchin in War and Peace and War uses his expertise in evolutionary biology to make a highly original argument about the rise and fall of empires. Turchin argues that the key to the formation of an empire is a society's capacity for collective action. He demonstrates that high levels of cooperation are found where people have to band together to fight off a common enemy, and that this kind of cooperation led to the formation of the Roman and Russian empires, and the United States. But as empires grow, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, conflict replaces cooperation, and dissolution inevitably follows. Eloquently argued and rich with historical examples, War and Peace and War offers a bold new theory about the course of world history.

First Sentence

The empire has unified all the civilizations at last.

Subjects

Other Editions

  • War and Peace and War: The Life Cycles of Imperial NationsPi Press2005-08-25

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