Podcast appearances and mentions of Walter Scheidel

Vorab eine kleine Inhaltswarnung: wir sprechen in dieser Folge viel über Krankheit und Tod, vor allem in der Einleitung, in der zusätzlich noch einige andere ungustiöse Dinge erwähnt werden. Wir springen in dieser Folge ins Jahr 166. An der östlichen Grenze des Reichs wurde gerade der Partherkrieg beendet, die Soldaten kehren nach Rom zurück und – zumindest so die Darstellung der römischen Geschichtsschreibung – bringen damit auch eine Krankheit mit, die Rom bis zu jener Zeit noch nicht erlebt hat. Wir sprechen in dieser Folge über die Antoninische Pest, die auch heute, fast 2000 Jahre später, ein Mysterium darstellt, und die deshalb in der Geschichtsschreibung immer wieder unterschiedlich bewertet wurde. Es ist aber gut möglich, dass sie nicht nur die erste Pandemie, sondern auch ein Katalysator des Niedergangs des Römischen Reichs war. // Literatur - Colin Elliott. Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World. Princeton University Press, 2024. - Donald J. Robertson. Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor. Yale University Press, 2024. - Walter Scheidel. Escape From Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity. Princeton University Press, 2019. // Erwähnte Folgen GAG12: Ein Kaiser, ein Gott, viele Todesfälle – https://gadg.fm/12 GAG435: Die Schlacht bei Carrhae – https://gadg.fm/435 GAG468: Arabia Felix oder Die Dänisch Arabische Expedition – https://gadg.fm/468 GAG333: Alexandria – https://gadg.fm/333 GAG451: Eine kleine Geschichte der verlorenen Bücher – https://gadg.fm/451 GAG363: Duke Kahanamoku – https://gadg.fm/363 GAG286: Die verschwundenen Seefrauen Islands – https://gadg.fm/286 GAG130: Alexander von Abonuteichos oder Wie ein Kult entsteht – https://gadg.fm/130 Das Episodenbild zeigt einen Ausschnitt der sogenannten Galenosgruppe, aus dem Wiener Dioskurides. //Aus unserer Werbung Du möchtest mehr über unsere Werbepartner erfahren? Hier findest du alle Infos & Rabatte: https://linktr.ee/GeschichtenausderGeschichte //Wir haben auch ein Buch geschrieben: Wer es erwerben will, es ist überall im Handel, aber auch direkt über den Verlag zu erwerben: https://www.piper.de/buecher/geschichten-aus-der-geschichte-isbn-978-3-492-06363-0 Wer Becher, T-Shirts oder Hoodies erwerben will: Die gibt's unter https://geschichte.shop Wer unsere Folgen lieber ohne Werbung anhören will, kann das über eine kleine Unterstützung auf Steady oder ein Abo des GeschichteFM-Plus Kanals auf Apple Podcasts tun. Wir freuen uns, wenn ihr den Podcast bei Apple Podcasts oder wo auch immer dies möglich ist rezensiert oder bewertet. Wir freuen uns auch immer, wenn ihr euren Freundinnen und Freunden, Kolleginnen und Kollegen oder sogar Nachbarinnen und Nachbarn von uns erzählt! Du möchtest Werbung in diesem Podcast schalten? Dann erfahre hier mehr über die Werbemöglichkeiten bei Seven.One Audio: https://www.seven.one/portfolio/sevenone-audio

On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks to archeologist and historian Bryan Ward-Perkins about his 2005 book The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization. Ward-Perkins was born and grew up in Rome, a son of architectural historian and archaeologist, John Bryan Ward-Perkins. Educated at Oxford University, Ward-Perkins eventually became a fellow of Trinity College at the same university, from which he has since retired. An archaeologist with a deep interest in economic history, Ward-Perkins' standout book The Fall of Rome was to a great extent a restatement of traditional understandings of the Roman fall in the wake of academic revisions stimulated by Peter Brown's 1989 World of Late Antiquity: AD 150-750. Ward-Perkins scholarship focuses on the outputs of economic production: fine pottery, grand public buildings and copious coinage. In contrast, Brown and his fellow travelers tended to focus on religious innovation and creativity in the centuries coincident with Rome's fall. The Fall of Rome documents in crisp, dense prose the material collapse attendant with the dissolution of the Western Empire in the late 5th and 6th centuries, from the vanishing of pottery in Britain to the cessation of the construction of massive buildings across  the Italian peninsula. Razib also asks Ward-Perkins his opinions on his colleague Pete Heather's book The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians.  Ward-Perkins sees Heather's work as complementary; while Ward-Perkins is interested in the material aspects of everyday Roman life, Heather documents and narrates the diplomatic and military affairs of the Roman elite. Ward-Perkins also comments on Chris Wickham's work in books like The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000, which outlines how the Roman and post-Roman states differed, in particular, the disappearance in Europe of professional soldiers paid in currency, rather than feudal levies. They also discuss  Walter Scheidel's Escape from Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity, and whether Roman citizens were actually materially better  off than their medieval successors. Ward-Perkins also gives his estimation of the time measured in centuries until Western Europe reattained Roman levels of social, technological and political complexity. If you have a sibling with autism, your future child's risk for an autism diagnosis is increased by a factor of 2 to 3.5×. Orchid's whole genome embryo reports can help mitigate your child's risk by screening for over 200 genetic variants definitively linked to autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Discuss your situation with a genetics expert.

PDS Debt is offering a free debt analysis. It only takes thirty seconds. Get yours at https://pdsdebt.com/free-debt-assessment/?ref=whatifalthist Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews: https://www.youtube.com/@History102-qg5oj Link to my cancellation insurance: https://becomepluribus.com/creators/20 Link to my Twitter- https://x.com/whatifalthist Link to my Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlynch/?hl=en Bibliography:  Curt Doolittle's work. Available on the Propertarian Website The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama  The Decay of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama  A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia by David Christian. 2 volumes The History of Russia by Orlando Figes Europe by Norman Davies The Isles by Norman Davies  Al Muqqahdimmah by Ibn Khaldun Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung The Elephant in the Brain by Simler The Rise of the West by McNeil Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder Atrocities by Matthew White The True Believer by Eric Hoffer Sex and Power in History by Amaury de Riencourt The Origins of Ideology by Immanuel Todd The Moral Animal by Robert Wright Sex and Culture by JD Unwin The Lonely Crowd by David Riesman Very Beautiful People by Ashley Mears Envy by Helmut Schoeck The Righteous Mind by John Haidt Seeing like a State by James Scott War in Human Civilization by Azar Gat Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell War and Peace and War by Peter Turchin Why Nations Fail by Robinson and Acemoglu Dominion by Tom Holland The Ancient City by Foustel de Coulanges A History of Civilizations by Fernand Braudel  War, What is it Good for by Ian Morris The Leviathan and Its Enemies by Samuel Francis A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell The Great Leveler by Walter Scheidel

Today there are over eight billion people on Earth. That's an awe-inspiring figure… but how does it compare to the vast numbers who came before us? Listener Alpha wants to know how many people have ever existed, so CrowdScience sets out to do a historical headcount.The Population Research Bureau in the USA estimated this number back in the 90s, and have been updating their calculations ever since. Demographer Toshiko Kaneda explains how their model works, the assumptions it makes – and the huge uncertainties around the number it comes out with.We first need a date for when ‘humans' first began, so Caroline travels to the Natural History Museum in London to meet human evolution expert Chris Stringer, and marvel at his collection of replica fossil skulls. Chris demonstrates how to distinguish our species, Homo sapiens, from other species like Neanderthals. When did these species first appear - and which of them count as human?And once you know where to start the clock, how do you estimate the numbers of people alive at different points in history? For a population demographer like Walter Scheidel, it helps that some ancient civilisations kept detailed censuses, a few of which have survived to the present day. Caroline and Walter pour over one of these census fragments, and learn how to combine them with other archaeological clues to get some very rough numbers.And finally: what does the future of our population look like? Poonam Muttreja from the Population Foundation of India discusses developments in the world's most populous country, as well as the big demographic trends ahead for humanity. Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Phil Sansom Additional Recording: Umaru Fofana Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Connor Morgans Studio Manager: Sue Maillot Featuring: Toshiko Kaneda, Technical Director of Demographic Research, Population Research Bureau Chris Stringer, Research Leader in Human Evolution, Natural History Museum London Walter Scheidel, Professor of Classics and History, Stanford University Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India

Het is het jaar 911. Aan de oever van de rivier de Epte staat koning Karel de Eenvoudige tegenover een leger woeste Deense zeerovers. Daar moet Karel een keuze maken, die de toon zet voor de rest van de middeleeuwen. Gaat hij vechten, of onderhandelen?Iedere woensdag verschijnt een nieuwe aflevering. Meer informatie: nrc.nl/wildeeeuwenTekst en presentatie: Hendrik SpieringRedactie, regie en montage: Elze van DrielMuziek, montage en mixage: Rufus van BaardwijkEindredactie: Mirjam van Zuidam & Iddo HavingaBeeld: Jeen BertingVormgeving: Yannick MortierHeeft u vragen, suggesties of ideeën over onze journalistiek? Mail dan naar onze ombudsman via ombudsman@nrc.nl.Bij het maken van deze aflevering is onder meer gebruik gemaakt van deze literatuur: De historische bron over de onderhandelingen tussen de vikingen en Karel de Eenvoudige is de kroniek ‘Gesta Normannorum´, geschreven door Dudo van St. Quentin (960 – 1026) Geoffrey Koziol (2006) ‘Charles the Simple, Robert of Neustria, and the vexilla of Saint-Denis', in Early medieval Europe Vol. 14, p 355-390 Horst Lößlein (2019) Royal Power in the Late Carolingian Age. Charles III the Simple and His Predecessors Modern Academic Publishing 2019 Walter Scheidel (2019) Escape from Rome. The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity, Princeton University Press Zie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

James Otteson argues against wealth redistribution.Follow @IdeasHavingSexx on Twitter.Today's book: Should Wealth Be Redistributed? A DebateJames's website, Twitter, author page, university page.Recommended and discussed: From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967 by David Beito; Black Liberation Through the Marketplace: Hope, Heartbreak, and the Promise of America by Rachel Ferguson & Marcus Witcher; The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths by Mariana Mazzucato; & The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by Walter Scheidel

Drawing on the work of G.E.M. de Ste. Croix, Peter Temin, and Walter Scheidel, Alex and Benjamin dig into the economy of the Roman Empire. They explore the role of markets, the level of social mobility, whether a core/periphery model applies, and the influence of contemporary concerns on Roman historiography.

EPISODE 1453: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to the Oxford Professor of Global History and author of THE EARTH TRANSFORMED, Peter Frankopan, about what we can learn from history about today's environmental crisis Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University, where he is Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. He is also Professor of Silk Roads Studies and a Bye-Fellow at King's College, Cambridge. He works on the history and politics of the Mediterranean, Russia, the Middle East, Persia/Iran, Central Asia, China and beyond - as well as on the histories of climate, natural resources and connectivities. Peter often writes for the international press, including The Sunday Times, New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian, and the Evening Standard. He has been called 'the first great historian of the 21st century' by Brazil's DCM magazine; 'the history rock star du jour by The New Statesman, and simply 'a rock-star historian' (VLT - Sweden; Helsingin Sanomat - Finland). The Times has called him 'a literary star.' Silk Roads was named The Daily Telegraph's History Book of the Year 2015. it went to Number One in the Sunday Times Non-Fiction charts, remaining in the Top 10 for nine months in a row, as well as being #1 in China, India and many other countries around the world, selling more than 2m copies. It is one of 'ten books that change how you see the world' (The Times). It was named one of the 'Books of the Decade' 2010-20 by the Sunday Times. His follow-up, The New Silk Roads, is a 'masterly-mapping out of anew world order', according to the Evening Standard, and 'a brilliant guide to terra incognita' (Sunday Times) that is reminiscent of Tolstoy (Daily Telegraph). It won the Human Sciences prize of the Carical Foundation in 2019. In his latest book, The Earth Transformed: An Untold History, Peter looks at environmental history, at climate and the ways it has shaped the human and natural past. 'This is an endlessly fascinating book', says Gerard DeGroot in The Times, 'an easy read on an important subject. It has the intellectual weight and dramatic force of a tsunami.' According to Walter Scheidel in The Financial Times: 'Humanity has transformed the Earth: Frankopan transforms our understanding of history.' In December 2018, The Silk Roads was named one of the 25 most influential books translated into Chinese in the last 40 years, alongside One Hundred Years of Solitude, Pride and Prejudice, Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. In 2019, he won the prestigious Calliope Prize of the German Emigration Center, one of the richest prizes for the Humanities in Germany. In 2016-18, Peter's Songlines audio channel in which he chose his favourite pieces of world music was part of British Airways' In-Flight Entertainment system. In 2018, The Silk Roads was chosen as part of the Government of Pakistan's Read to Lead program to encourage literacy in the country. It was the inspiration for a new character in The Vikings mini-series. He has collaborated with Katie Melua and students at Oxford to create music based inspired by The Silk Roads. Peter's books The Silk Roads: A New History of the World and The New Silk Roads: The Future and Present of the World have been translated into forty languages. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Huemer makes the case that governments have no legitimate authority.Follow @IdeasHavingSexx on Twitter.Today's book: Is Political Authority an Illusion? (Little Debates about Big Questions)Michael Huemer's recommendation: The Problem of Political AuthorityOther books by HuemerMike's web presence: Fake Noûs Blog, Personal Website, University WebsiteOther discussed books: The Property Species: Mine, Yours, and the Human Mind by Bart J. Wilson, and The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by Walter Scheidel

Thirty three scholars, philosophers, and archaeologists answer the question: If you could time travel to the ancient world, who would you want to meet? Scholars featured + the timestamps when they appear: 2:10  Edith Hall 3:36  Eric Cline 4:30  Andromache Karanika 5:45  Josiah Ober 6:48  Rush Rehm 7:30  Ian Morris 8:02  Rebecca Newberger Goldstein 9:20  Patrick Hunt 9:46  Raffaella Cribiore 11:04  Mark Adams 12:20  Peter Adamson 13:47  Richard Martin 15:08  M. M. McCabe 16:37  Zina Giannopoulou 18:45  Greg Nagy 19:43  Caroline Winterer 20:04  Melissa Lane 22:28  Alicia Stallings 22:57  Rhiannon Evans 24:04  Barbara Graziosi 24:54  Walter Scheidel 25:12  Matt Simonton 26:30  Emily Greenwood 27:57  Olga Levaniouk 30:00  Steele Brand 32:55  Rachel Barney 33:36  Angie Hobbs 35:31  Adrian Goldsworthy 36:30  Mary Bachvarova 37:42  Jonathan Lear 39:40  Mary Townsend 40:31  Gabriel Richardson Lear 42:14  Ben Morison

Send comments and questions to: coffeeandconjure@gmail.com.Social MediaFacebook: www.facebook.com/coffeeconjurepdInstagram: www.instagram.com/coffeeconjurepdTwitter: www.twitter.com/coffeeconjurepdBibliographyhttp://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.aspBirx, H. James. "Ziggurats." In Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Birx, H. James. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2006: 2363-64.Geller, Markham and Luděk Vacín. Healing Magic and Evil Demons: Canonical Udug-Hul Incantations. Boston: De Gruyter, 2016.Gosden, Chris. The History of Magic. London: Penguin Random House, 2020.Monroe, M. Willis. “Mesopotamian Astrology.” Religion Compass 13, no. 6, 2019.The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean. Peter Fibiger Bang and Walter Scheidel, eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion, edited by Timothy Insoll. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.Walton, John H. “Demons in Mesopotamia and Israel: Exploring the Category of Non-Divine but Supernatural Entities.” In Windows to the Ancient World of the Hebrew Bible, 2014.

“The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”  -Voltaire   "The proportion of people killed annually in wars is less than a quarter of what it was in the 1980s, a seventh of what it was in the early 1970s, an eighteenth of what it was in the early 1950s, and a half a percent of what it was during World War II. Genocides, once common, have become rare. In most times and places, homicides kill far more people than wars, and homicide rates have been falling as well. Americans are half as likely to be murdered as they were two dozen years ago. In the world as a whole, people are seven-tenths as likely to be murdered as they were eighteen years ago. Life has been getting safer in every way. Over the course of the 20th century, Americans became 96 percent less likely to be killed in a car accident, 88 percent less likely to be mowed down on the sidewalk, 99 percent less likely to die in a plane crash, 59 percent less likely to fall to their deaths, 92 percent less likely to die by fire, 90 percent less likely to drown, 92 percent less likely to be asphyxiated, and 95 percent less likely to be killed on the job."  -Steven Pinker   Interestingly, many diseases have been falling for longer than we had vaccines or even treatments for them.  The reason?  Mostly sanitation and bug extermination.  Plumbers, civil engineers, and exterminators have done more to lengthen life than doctors have.   All of human history has been ravaged by communicable disease.  To give a pretty typical year, about 500/100,000 people died in NYC in 1849 of TB.  In the US in the past year, about 160/100,000 people have died of Covid.   But people in the past didn't panic at this -- it was simply normal.  Perhaps that's our future:  Things are unbelievably good and safe, and we all are clutching our knees in a corner, shaking in fear.   “All of us who prize greater economic equality would do well to remember that with the rarest of exceptions it was only ever brought forth in sorrow."  - Walter Scheidel

La pandémie de Covid-19 ne cesse de révéler et de creuser les inégalités à travers le monde. Mais est-ce une fatalité? Et quʹen sera-t-il après? A quel monde et à quelles (in-)égalités faut-il sʹattendre une fois la pandémie passée? Pour tenter de répondre à ces questions, Anne Laure Gannac sʹappuie notamment sur "Une histoire des inégalités" de Walter Scheidel dont la traduction en français vient de paraître (Ed. Actes Sud). Le malheur règne dans "Le démon de la Colline aux loups" (Ed. Le Tripode). Dimitri Rouchon-Borie, chroniqueur judiciaire, accroche le lecteur par ce récit dʹun enfant victime dʹinceste, fracassé, illettré et violent. Le roman halluciné dʹun destin calciné. Par Geneviève Bridel Avec un peu dʹavance, Julien Comelli évoque le 30e anniversaire de la mort de Serge Gainsbourg à travers la diffusion du très beau documentaire inédit de Sylvain Bergère, "Gainsbourg, toute une vie". À voir sur le PLAY RTS jusquʹau 22 mars.

durée : 00:33:10 - La Grande table idées - par : Olivia Gesbert - Le Covid-19 sera-t-il le choc qui mettra fin aux inégalités actuelles comme l'ont fait auparavant d'autres chocs historiques? On en parle avec l'historien Walter Scheidel, auteur d'"Une histoire des inégalités : de l'âge de pierre au XXIe siècle" (janvier 2021). - réalisation : Thomas Beau - invités : Walter Scheidel Historien

"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." Lately, it seems like our society is attempting to replace truth with power, forgetting that all other societies that have done this have failed miserably. One of the worst features of our society, we are told, is wealth inequality. But, what is the historical truth about wealth inequality? Drawing inspiration from Walter Scheidel's book, The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality, we explore the history of wealth inequality and discuss how the cure has tended to be far worse than the disease. To support Context and access bonus episodes, join me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/context Learn more at https://bradharris.com 

Four horsemen of leveling | Walter Scheidel is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History, and the Catherine R. Kennedy and Daniel L. Grossman Fellow in Human Biology at Stanford University. Scheidel specializes in the history of economic inequality, and his book The Great Leveler examines what forces have reduced economic inequality throughout history. Politicians and governments are often tasked with dealing with economic inequality today, but in reality, Scheidel says, societal collapse, epidemics, war, and communist revolutions do it much better. Listen to hear what this means today for a route to economic fairness in America and Europe, and what impact the coronavirus pandemic could have.

What has the Roman Empire ever done for us? Fall and go away. That is the striking conclusion of historian Walter Scheidel as he recounts the gripping story of how the end of the Roman Empire was the beginning of the modern world. The fall of the Roman Empire has long been considered one of the greatest disasters in history but Scheidel argues that Rome’s dramatic collapse was actually the best thing that ever happened, clearing the path for Europe’s economic rise and the creation of the modern age. Shermer and Scheidel range across the entire premodern world and up to the present, discussing: Why did the Roman Empire appear? Why did nothing like it ever return to Europe? Why did Europeans come to dominate the world? the rich diversity of Europe that encouraged political, economic, scientific, and technological breakthroughs why other parts of the world lagged behind how empires are built and why they fail America as an empire. income inequality and the only forces that change it significantly the future of human civilization. Dr. Walter Scheidel is an Austrian historian who teaches ancient history at Stanford University. His main research interests are ancient social and economic history, pre-modern historical demography, and comparative and transdisciplinary approaches to world history. He is the author of The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century, On Human Bondage: After Slavery and Social Death, The Science of Roman History: Biology, Climate and the Future of the Past, The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, The Oxford Handbook of Roman Studies, and Rome, China: Comparative Perspectives on Ancient World Empires, and more. Listen to Science Salon via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play Music, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn.

Om växande klyftor, konkurser och bubblande ilska. Konflikt gör en resa i den verklighet som Coronaviruset lämnat efter sig, till Stockholmsförorten Skärholmen och mer välbärgade Lidingö. Slår krisen ojämlikt? Och vad riskerar att bli konsekvenserna? Medverkande: Finansminister Magdalena Andersson, professor Walter Scheidel, Annika Sundén, analyschef Arbetsförmedlingen, Cecilia Hermansson, nationalekonom, Ulrika Modéer, vice generalsekreterare UNDP, Hikmah Ali och Amira Ibrahim i Skärholmen och Patrik Gadelius, Jonas Melchersson och Tomas Nagel i Lidingö. Programledare och producenter: Anja Sahlberg anja.sahlberg@sr.se Ulrika Bergqvist ulrika.bergqvist@sr.se Tekniker: Joel Löf

A side effect of the coronavirus is a rotten economy. So what can a century-old pandemic tell us about how long the downturn will last? Stanford professor Walter Scheidel joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how the 1918 flu took many lives but in the end spared the economy. His article published in Foreign Affairs is “The Spanish Flu Didn’t Wreck the Global Economy, What Is Different About the Coronavirus Pandemic?”

On the socioeconomic changes caused by pandemics throughout (and before) recorded history with Drs. Walter Scheidel, Andrew Monson, and Adam Graves. Further Reading (direct links at anchor.fm/dphi): Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, Roman Egypt, Antonine Plague, Spanish flu, Black Death, Plague of Justinian, Great Depression, New Deal, Financial crisis of 2007 and of course, Dr. Scheidel's The Great Leveler. Episode image. Thanks to Kelsey Percival, Hannah Warner, and Gabriel Grinsteiner. For more about D-phi and our live events, visit dphi.org

No episódio #110 da Rádio Companhia, Ricardo Teperman, publisher da Zahar, conversa com quatro analistas sobre o tema da obra “Violência e a história da desigualdade: Da Idade da Pedra ao século XXI”, de Walter Scheidel. Lançado recentemente no formato e-book, o livro defende que, das primeiras sociedades humanas até hoje, a desigualdade econômica só diminuiu de forma significativa com rupturas violentas de larga escala. Com argumentos sólidos, fundamentados por pesquisa detalhada e apresentada com fartura de dados, Scheidel chega a uma conclusão ainda mais perturbadora: se atualmente os eventos de violência cataclísmica não parecem ser tão ameaçadores quanto antes, por outro lado as propostas econômicas para reduzir a desigualdade não estão surtindo efeito, e o desequilíbrio econômico e social só tende a aumentar. * Participam do debate a cientista política Marta Arretche, professora titular da USP e diretora do Centro de Estudos da Metrópole; o economista Armínio Fraga, ex-presidente do Banco Central e sócio-fundador da Gávea Investimentos; Bruno Carazza, especialista em políticas públicas, gestão governamental, professor do IBMEC e autor do livro "Dinheiro, lições e poder"; e o sociólogo Marcelo Medeiros, pesquisador do IPEA e professor da UnB, atualmente professor visitante na Universidade de Princeton. * Apresentação: Mariana Figueiredo e Ricardo Teperman Roteiro: Ricardo Teperman Edição: Paulo Júnior

Given that we are in the midst of a series on technology, inequality, and global catastrophic risks inspired by Walter Scheidel's book on these subjects, and he's just written an op-ed on the topic, I thought I'd release the op-ed as a bonus. 

Plagues have fascinated us since antiquity, but the Antonine Plague stands out because one of the most famous physicians in Western history was present to make detailed observations. In this episode, guest host Liam Conway-Pearson explores what we know -- and what we don't know -- about this plague, which ravaged Rome two millennia ago. Plus a brand new #AdamAnswers about using convalescent plasma to treat the Spanish Flu of 1918!   Sources: Adrian Muraru, “On Galen of Pergamum: The Greek Physician and Philosopher of Late Antiquity in the Roman Empire,” Agathos 9, no.2 (2018): 7-20. H. Clifford Lane and Anthony S. Fauci, “Microbial Bioterrorism,” in Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 20e, ed. J. Larry Jameson et al. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2018), S2. James Greenberg, “Plagued by Doubt: Reconsidering the Impact of a Mortality Crisis in the 2nd C. A.D.,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 16 (2003): 413-425.  Jennifer Manley, “Measles and Ancient Plagues: A Note on New Scientific Evidence,” Classical World 107, no. 3 (Spring 2014): 393-397.  J. F. Gilliam, “The Plague under Marcus Aurelius,” The American Journal of Philology 82, no. 3 (July 1961): 225-251. John Haldon, Hugh Elton, Sabine R. Huebner, Adam Izdebski, Lee Mordechai, and Timothy P. Newfield, “Plagues, Climate Change, and the End of an Empire. A Response to Kyle Harper’s The Fate of Rome (2): Plagues and a Crisis of Empire,” History Compass 6, no. 12 (November 2018). Joseph B. Fullerton and Mark E. Silverman, “Claudius Galen of Pergamum: Authority of Medieval Medicine,” Clinical Cardiology 32, no. 11 (January 2008): E82-E84. Joseph R. McConnell, Andrew I. Wilson, Andreas Stohl, Monica M. Arienzo, Nathan J. Chellman, Sabine Eckhardt, Elisabeth M. Thompson, A. Mark Pollard, and Jørgen Pender Steffensen, “Lead Pollution Recorded in Greenland Ice Indicates European Emissions Tracked Plagues, Wars, and Imperial Expansion during Antiquity,” PNAS 115, no. 22 (May 2018): 5726-5731. J. Rufus Fears, “The Plague under Marcus Aurelius and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” Infectious Disease Clinics of North America 18 (2004): 65-77. Kyle Harper, The Fate of Rome (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017), 23-118. Mike Duncan, The History of Rome, Podcast Audio, 2007-2013. https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/the_history_of_rome/archives.html  R. J. Littman and M. L. Littman, “Galen and the Antonine Plague,” The American Journal of Philology 94, no. 3 (Autumn 1973): 243-255. R. P. Duncan-Jones, “The Impact of the Antonine Plague,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 9 (1996): 108-136. “Smallpox,” CDC, last modified June 7, 2016, https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/transmission/index.html. Vivian Nutton, “The Chronology of Galen’s Early Career,” The Classical Quarterly 23, no. 1 (May 1973): 158-171. Yuki Furuse, Akira Suzuki, and Hitoshi Oshitani, “Origin of Measles Virus: Divergence from Rinderpest Virus between the 11th and 12th Centuries,” Virology Journal 7, no. 52 (March 2010): 1-4.  Catherine Thėves, Eric Crubėzy, and Philippe Biagini, “History of Smallpox and Its Spread in Human Populations,” Microbiology Spectrum 4, no. 4 (April 2015):  Walter Scheidel, “A Model of Demographic and Economic Change in Roman Egypt after the Antonine Plague,” Journal of Roman Archaeology 15 (2002): 97-114.

Hello! What determines whether crises lead to major social change? We talk to two historians about lessons from the past. Walter Scheidel explains his argument that economic inequality has only ever been significantly reduced by catastrophes and war. Then Theda Skocpol discusses the impact that ideas and social movements can have.Plus ParkRun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt on the story behind its phenomenal success. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Walter Scheidel is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History, and a Kennedy-Grossman Fellow in Human Biology at Stanford University. The author or editor of seventeen previous books, he has published widely on premodern social and economic history, demography, and comparative history. He lives in Palo Alto, California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Die soziale Ungleichheit wächst und wächst: Inzwischen besitzen nur 26 Milliardäre mehr als die ärmste Hälfte der Weltbevölkerung! Was muss eigentlich passieren, damit es endlich mal in die andere Richtung gehen kann? Walter Scheidel, Professor an der Universität Stanford, hat einen umfassenden wissenschaftlichen Vergleich vorgenommen, über alle Zeitalter und Kulturen der Weltgeschichte hinweg. Sein düsteres Fazit: Demokratie an sich war nie ausreichend, um die soziale Ungleichheit zu reduzieren, im Gegenteil. Historisch gesehen gibt es eine Minderung der sozialen Ungleichheit nur bei gewalttätigen, systemischen Schocks wie große industrialisierte Kriege, Revolutionen, Staatsversagen - und Seuchen. Was lässt sich in Zeiten der Corona-Pandemie daraus lernen? Und ist ein Blick auf eine andere, gerechtere Welt jetzt eher mehr, oder weniger möglich? // // // VERNETZ DICH! Twitter -> https://twitter.com/halbzehnfm Facebook -> https://www.facebook.com/halbzehn.fm Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/halbzehn.fm Ines -> https://twitter.com/inesschwerdtner Steve -> https://twitter.com/rotesockensteve Flo -> https://twitter.com/_derheld_ UNTERSTÜTZE UNS! -->Gefällt Dir, was Du hörst? Dann mach die nächste Folge möglich! Warum? Wir brauchen unbedingt mehr unabhängige linke Medien! Hilf uns dabei, dass mehr Menschen von uns erfahren! -->Spenden? Spenden! Wenn Dir unsere Arbeit richtig gefällt, dann überleg Dir doch, ob Du uns mit einem kleinen Betrag finanziell unterstützen möchtest. Wir schalten keine Werbung, wir alle machen den Podcast in unserer Freizeit - jeder Beitrag hilft uns, die Ausgaben für Technik, Reisen, Internet stemmen zu können. -->Mach die nächste Folge möglich! https://halbzehn.fm/spenden/

1-Coronavirus. Negli usa il governo federale promette soldi alle famiglie e alle aziende in difficoltà. Chiusura brillante per le borse europee. ( Andrea di Stefano – Valori ) ..2- Francia. Stanziati 45 miliardi di euro per sostenere imprese e lavoratori. ( Francesco Giorgini) ..3- Effetto Pandemia. l'Uefa sposta al 2021 l'europeo di calcio ...L'Irlanda annulla i festeggiamenti per san patrizio...( Matteo Sera e Francesca Abruzzese) ..4- Primarie dem: l' Ohio dichiara l'emergenza sanitaria e rinvia il voto. Negli altri tre stati favorito Joe Biden ma Bernie Sanders è riuscito a imporre le sue idee al partito sulla sanità e la scuola. ( Roberto Festa)..5-Il libro del martedì.  La grande livellatrice. Violenza e disuguaglianza dalla preistoria a oggi,  di Walter Scheidel,..( Vincenzo Mantovani)..6-Terre agricole. La Svezia annulla un contratto con un'azienda norvegese coinvolta nel Land Grabbing in Uganda. ( Marta Gatti)

1-Coronavirus. Negli usa il governo federale promette soldi alle famiglie e alle aziende in difficoltà. Chiusura brillante per le borse europee. ( Andrea di Stefano – Valori ) ..2- Francia. Stanziati 45 miliardi di euro per sostenere imprese e lavoratori. ( Francesco Giorgini) ..3- Effetto Pandemia. l’Uefa sposta al 2021 l’europeo di calcio ...L’Irlanda annulla i festeggiamenti per san patrizio...( Matteo Sera e Francesca Abruzzese) ..4- Primarie dem: l’ Ohio dichiara l’emergenza sanitaria e rinvia il voto. Negli altri tre stati favorito Joe Biden ma Bernie Sanders è riuscito a imporre le sue idee al partito sulla sanità e la scuola. ( Roberto Festa)..5-Il libro del martedì.  La grande livellatrice. Violenza e disuguaglianza dalla preistoria a oggi,  di Walter Scheidel,..( Vincenzo Mantovani)..6-Terre agricole. La Svezia annulla un contratto con un’azienda norvegese coinvolta nel Land Grabbing in Uganda. ( Marta Gatti)

1-Coronavirus. Negli usa il governo federale promette soldi alle famiglie e alle aziende in difficoltà. Chiusura brillante per le borse europee. ( Andrea di Stefano – Valori ) ..2- Francia. Stanziati 45 miliardi di euro per sostenere imprese e lavoratori. ( Francesco Giorgini) ..3- Effetto Pandemia. l’Uefa sposta al 2021 l’europeo di calcio ...L’Irlanda annulla i festeggiamenti per san patrizio...( Matteo Sera e Francesca Abruzzese) ..4- Primarie dem: l’ Ohio dichiara l’emergenza sanitaria e rinvia il voto. Negli altri tre stati favorito Joe Biden ma Bernie Sanders è riuscito a imporre le sue idee al partito sulla sanità e la scuola. ( Roberto Festa)..5-Il libro del martedì.  La grande livellatrice. Violenza e disuguaglianza dalla preistoria a oggi,  di Walter Scheidel,..( Vincenzo Mantovani)..6-Terre agricole. La Svezia annulla un contratto con un’azienda norvegese coinvolta nel Land Grabbing in Uganda. ( Marta Gatti)

A review and discussion of the book "the Great Leveler" by Walter Schiedel, which deals with historical means by which inequality is reduced.

Desde el 21 de noviembre (2019), hay manifestaciones en Colombia. Por muchas razones. Tantas que para algunos no es claro qué se quiere lograr. Santiago se cuenta entre los dudosos. Acá nos preguntamos si vale la pena marchar en este contexto de incertidumbre. Para dar contexto, en la introducción al episodio, hicimos la fácil: remitirnos a un artículo de semana.com (que Bruja equivocadamente atribuye a El Espectador). El discurso de V de Vendetta The Great Leveler. Libro de Walter Scheidel. Recomendaciones de Claudia López a Iván Duque --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/brujaysantiago/message

The history and inevitability of economic inequality, with thoughts on whether and in what circumstances it's bad, from me, not the author. (The written version of this review, in web, PDF, and ebook formats, can be found here.)

According to Walter Scheidel in The Great Leveler, the only ways to equalize the distribution of wealth effectively have involved violence on a massive scale: famine, war, state collapse, revolution. But how did things get so inequal in the first place? Today on MindMatters we discuss the first chapter of Scheidel's book, which provides an overview of the history of inequality. From chimps and hunter-gatherers to the first farmers and the emergence of classes of elites, there has always been...

According to Walter Scheidel in The Great Leveler, the only ways to equalize the distribution of wealth effectively have involved violence on a massive scale: famine, war, state collapse, revolution. But how did things get so inequal in the first place? Today on MindMatters we discuss the first chapter of Scheidel's book, which provides an overview of the history of inequality. From chimps and hunter-gatherers to the first farmers and the emergence of classes of elites, there has always been...

According to Walter Scheidel in The Great Leveler, the only ways to equalize the distribution of wealth effectively have involved violence on a massive scale: famine, war, state collapse, revolution. But how did things get so inequal in the first place? Today on MindMatters we discuss the first chapter of Scheidel's book, which provides an overview of the history of inequality. From chimps and hunter-gatherers to the first farmers and the emergence of classes of elites, there has always been...

According to Walter Scheidel in The Great Leveler, the only ways to equalize the distribution of wealth effectively have involved violence on a massive scale: famine, war, state collapse, revolution. But how did things get so inequal in the first place? Today on MindMatters we discuss the first chapter of Scheidel's book, which provides an overview of the history of inequality. From chimps and hunter-gatherers to the first farmers and the emergence of classes of elites, there has always been...

Alone among the world's regions, western Europe only had one major, long-lived imperial experience: that of Rome. When it fell, nothing like it ever returned again. According to Stanford's Professor Walter Scheidel, that fact had enormous consequences for the long-term development of Europe, and was a necessary precursor to the rise of modernity.Check out Professor Scheidel's new book, Escape From Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity, which comes out October 15th.And you are supporting this show when you support our sponsors, like Keeps! Keeps - Go to Keeps.com/TIDES to get your first month of treatment for free.

We live at a time of increasing economic inequality worldwide. What is driving this trend? And what are the factors that can stabilize or even reduce levels of inequality? Answering this question empirically would require a deep dive into the archives of history. One would have to sift through millennia of economic data across continents and civilizations. Our guest today took on this gargantuan task of writing a “global survey that covers the broad sweep of observable history” regarding inequality (as he puts it). Walter Scheidel is professor of Classics and History at Stanford University. He is a prolific author, and one of the most cited historians of Rome alive today. In 2017 he rekindled the debate about the history of inequality with the publication of his book The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the 21st Century.  ------------------ ANNOUNCEMENT: Jeff Wright's long-awaited serial reimagining of Homer's Odyssey has finally launched! Check out "Odyssey: The Podcast" on your favorite app or listen at: odysseythepodcast.com ------------------ A big thank you to listener Hein Roehrig for your generous support through Patreon.  

Die Diskussionen um Benachteiligung aufgrund des Geschlechts, der ethnischen Zugehörigkeit oder der familiären Herkunft haben lange Zeit das Problem wachsender wirtschaftlicher Ungleichheit in vielen Ländern Europas und weltweit in den Hintergrund gerückt. Der angesehene österreichische Altertumswissenschaftler und bekannte Autor Walter Scheidel hat die Geschichte gesellschaftlicher Ungleichheit geschrieben und die vier apokalyptischen Reiter Krieg, Seuchen, gesellschaftliche Umstürze und Staatsversagen als die bislang einzigen wahren Gleichmacher ausgemacht. Sein Buch Nach dem Krieg sind alle gleich schreit förmlich danach, ein alternatives Konzept für eine friedliche Nivellierung zu finden. Aus dem Englischen von Stephan Gebauer-Lippert wbg Theiss ISBN 978-3-8062-3827-3 687 Seiten 38 Euro

Every night, dozens of billionaires curl up with an underfed model, wondering where their next plate of wealth-affirming foie gras will come from. But heartless Americans don't care. They want billionaires to pay for universal healthcare, universal basic income (UBI), free college, and a pocket comb for Bernie. What if they met every demand? Would we be satisfied? What if the real problem is something far more sinister? Find out what it is – and what we can do about it – on the latest episode of The McFuture Podcast with Steve Faktor. Links from the episode: Further reading Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century by Walter Scheidel, Stanford professor, on the four 'fixes' for inequality What Money Can't Buy by Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel (and related article) Forget Socialism Versus Capitalism. Here's the Real Debate We Should Be Having. My take on inequality - Inequality We Trust Videos That recycling video from World Economic Forum of all the amazing things you can do with plastic water bottles Brilliant illustration (video) of corruption in our system by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez...and the irony. Some sources/stats FIJI Water Leads Bottled Water Industry In Looking Green(er) - Where are the riots?? I warned us in 2011 the 99%-ers are coming Nick Hanauer wrote in 2014 The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats 62% of American millionaires and 67% of the world's billionaires are self-made “there are approximately six million unfilled skilled labor jobs in America” - Entrepreneur  The US has 585 billionaires with a combined net worth of around $2.5 trillion

In 2014, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer warned his fellow plutocrats that our growing crisis of economic inequality would lead to an uprising or a dictatorship. Two years later, angry voters elected Donald Trump. In this inaugural episode of Pitchfork Economics, we explore why the pitchforks are coming, who they’re coming for, and how the stories we tell about the economy can change the economy itself. ShownotesThe Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014 Twitter: @nickhanauer  Facebook: @CivicSkunkWorks @NickHanauer Medium: https://civicskunk.works/ Ganesh Sitaraman: Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School and Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Co-founder and Director of Policy for the Great Democracy Initiative. Policy Director to Elizabeth Warren, 2011-2013. Author of The Crisis of the Middle Class Constitution: Law in the Age of Small Wars, named one of the New York Times’ 100 notable books of 2017. Twitter: @ganeshsitaraman  Walter Scheidel: Historian at Stanford. The most frequently cited active-duty Roman historian adjusted for age in the Western Hemisphere, Scheidel is the author or (co-)editor of 20 books, including The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality. Twitter: @walterscheidel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's show: Stanford professor Walter Scheidel’s book, The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

This episode is largely a review of The Great Leveler by Walter Scheidel. In the book Scheidel asserts that the only thing which has ever reduced inequality is some form of violence, either modern war, extreme revolutions, state collapse or pandemics. He backs up this assertion with loads of historical data, leading to the depressing conclusion that we either have to put up with periodic large scale violence or extreme inequality. This podcast is a discussion of that bleak conclusion.

New ways of governing, policy, protests, and more have been introduced across the globe for centuries to try and curb inequality. So, what actually worked? According to Walter Scheidel, author of "The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century," history reports that violence and catastrophe are the only proven effective interventions. On February 26th, Walter Scheidel, Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History, Stanford, joined This Week in Dystopia host Chris Robichaud for a conversation at Harvard Kennedy School. More about "The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century" can be found online here: https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10921.html Want more This Week in Dystopia? Don't forget to subscribe, follow This Week in Dystopia on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeekinDystopia and like the show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisWeekinDystopia/ This podcast is brought to you by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School.

In 2017 half of the world’s wealth belongs to the top 1% of the population. In his new book, The Great Leveler Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2017), Walter Scheidel explores economic inequality and sets forth the provocative thesis that only violence and catastrophes have truly reduced it throughout history. Scheidel delves in what he labels as the “Four Horsemen” of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—and how they have persisted in history and proved the most efficient ways in reducing what seems to be an inevitable trend in human history. Walter Scheidel teaches at Stanford University. The interview is part of a series produced by the Crisis, Extremes, and Apocalypse Research Network and the New Books Network. Audrey Borowski is a historian of ideas and a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. She is also the founder and lead convener of the ‘Crisis, extremes and Apocalypse’ Research Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017 half of the world’s wealth belongs to the top 1% of the population. In his new book, The Great Leveler Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2017), Walter Scheidel explores economic inequality and sets forth the provocative thesis that only violence and catastrophes have truly reduced it throughout history. Scheidel delves in what he labels as the “Four Horsemen” of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—and how they have persisted in history and proved the most efficient ways in reducing what seems to be an inevitable trend in human history. Walter Scheidel teaches at Stanford University. The interview is part of a series produced by the Crisis, Extremes, and Apocalypse Research Network and the New Books Network. Audrey Borowski is a historian of ideas and a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. She is also the founder and lead convener of the ‘Crisis, extremes and Apocalypse’ Research Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017 half of the world’s wealth belongs to the top 1% of the population. In his new book, The Great Leveler Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2017), Walter Scheidel explores economic inequality and sets forth the provocative thesis that only violence and catastrophes have truly reduced it throughout history. Scheidel delves in what he labels as the “Four Horsemen” of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—and how they have persisted in history and proved the most efficient ways in reducing what seems to be an inevitable trend in human history. Walter Scheidel teaches at Stanford University. The interview is part of a series produced by the Crisis, Extremes, and Apocalypse Research Network and the New Books Network. Audrey Borowski is a historian of ideas and a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. She is also the founder and lead convener of the ‘Crisis, extremes and Apocalypse’ Research Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017 half of the world’s wealth belongs to the top 1% of the population. In his new book, The Great Leveler Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2017), Walter Scheidel explores economic inequality and sets forth the provocative thesis that only violence and catastrophes have truly reduced it throughout history. Scheidel delves in what he labels as the “Four Horsemen” of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—and how they have persisted in history and proved the most efficient ways in reducing what seems to be an inevitable trend in human history. Walter Scheidel teaches at Stanford University. The interview is part of a series produced by the Crisis, Extremes, and Apocalypse Research Network and the New Books Network. Audrey Borowski is a historian of ideas and a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. She is also the founder and lead convener of the ‘Crisis, extremes and Apocalypse’ Research Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017 half of the world’s wealth belongs to the top 1% of the population. In his new book, The Great Leveler Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2017), Walter Scheidel explores economic inequality and sets forth the provocative thesis that only violence and catastrophes have truly reduced it throughout history. Scheidel delves in what he labels as the “Four Horsemen” of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—and how they have persisted in history and proved the most efficient ways in reducing what seems to be an inevitable trend in human history. Walter Scheidel teaches at Stanford University. The interview is part of a series produced by the Crisis, Extremes, and Apocalypse Research Network and the New Books Network. Audrey Borowski is a historian of ideas and a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. She is also the founder and lead convener of the ‘Crisis, extremes and Apocalypse’ Research Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017 half of the world’s wealth belongs to the top 1% of the population. In his new book, The Great Leveler Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2017), Walter Scheidel explores economic inequality and sets forth the provocative thesis that only violence and catastrophes have truly reduced it throughout history. Scheidel delves in what he labels as the “Four Horsemen” of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—and how they have persisted in history and proved the most efficient ways in reducing what seems to be an inevitable trend in human history. Walter Scheidel teaches at Stanford University. The interview is part of a series produced by the Crisis, Extremes, and Apocalypse Research Network and the New Books Network. Audrey Borowski is a historian of ideas and a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. She is also the founder and lead convener of the ‘Crisis, extremes and Apocalypse’ Research Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017 half of the world’s wealth belongs to the top 1% of the population. In his new book, The Great Leveler Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2017), Walter Scheidel explores economic inequality and sets forth the provocative...

To celebrate the FT’s Business Book of the Year Award, the team talk to the six shortlisted writers. In the second episode of our third series, Isabel Berwick, assistant features editor, and Andrew Hill, management editor, hear from Walter Scheidel, author of The Great Leveler, about how violent shocks decrease inequality. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, the Stanford University historian Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world. Ever since humans began to farm, herd livestock, and pass on their assets to future generations, economic inequality has been a defining feature of civilization. Over thousands of years, only violent events have significantly lessened inequality. The “Four Horsemen” of leveling—mass-mobilization warfare, transformative revolutions, state collapse, and catastrophic plagues—have repeatedly destroyed the fortunes of the rich. Scheidel identifies and examines these processes, from the crises of the earliest civilizations to the cataclysmic world wars and communist revolutions of the twentieth century. Today, the violence that reduced inequality in the past seems to have diminished, and that is a good thing. But it casts serious doubt on the prospects for a more equal future. An essential contribution to the debate about inequality, The Great Leveler provides important new insights about why inequality is so persistent—and why it is unlikely to decline anytime soon.  

Why didn't Rome rise again? Everywhere else in the world, the appearance of one great empire was marked by their recurrent resurgence, but in Europe it happened only once. Professor Walter Scheidel of Stanford University - the author of numerous outstanding books on Rome and beyond, most recently "The Great Leveler", on the history of economic inequality - argues that this lack of recurring empires is what laid the groundwork for the eventual rise of Europe, the Great Divergence, that underpins the modern world of today. Watch a preview of Genius, the new show on National Geographic about Albert Einstein, starring academy award winner Geoffrey Rush: NatGeoTV.com/Genius Take the survey at wondery.com/survey.

Wie sich die Schere zwischen Arm und Reich historisch entwickelt hat, was sich gegen sie tun lässt und welche Rolle Kriege dabei spielen: Stanford-Historiker Walter Scheidel

- Author, Dr. Walter Scheidel discusses his new book - Please call 1-800-388-9700 for a free review of your financial portfolio

How does inequality affect our lives? Alan Berube and Alexandra Killewald explain. Then, according to Walter Scheidel, there are ways to significantly reduce inequality. But they're all... uncomfortable. Then, why does America spend more on health care than any other country in the world. And finally, you can thank Obama for your next Uber ride. But don’t get too comfortable: here’s how the new health care proposal might affect the gig economy.

There’s a way to reduce inequality… but you aren’t going to like it.

Widening inequality is a blight on the modern economy and will ultimately undermine growth. But wait. Let's not hurry to fix it because history shows it can only really be addressed by total war, total revolution, state collapse or Black Death-like pandemics. That's the conclusion of Stanford professor Walter Scheidel, who joins Dan and Scott. Scheidel takes us on a tour-de-force of the rise and fall of inequality from cave societies through the bubonic plague to the two World Wars. He's not an optimist.

Walter Scheidel, Professor of Classics & History at Stanford University, gave the 2013 annual lecture held in memory of eminent Roman historian Sir Ronald Syme Lecture. The lecture was introduced by College President, Hermione Lee.