Why read Violence and Social Orders?

Book description

All societies must deal with the possibility of violence, and they do so in different ways. This book integrates the problem of violence into a larger social science and historical framework, showing how economic and political behavior are closely linked. Most societies, which we call natural states, limit violence by…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Violence and Social Orders as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Mark Koyama

Author

This is a landmark book in political economy and economic history.

Douglass North won the Noble Prize in Economics in part for the study of institutions in economic history.

This was his final work (coauthored with Wallis and Weingast). And while the lessons of North's earlier work on institutions have been incorporated into the wider body of scholarship in economic history and development economics, I think the lessons of this book haven't been fully absorbed.

The fundamental idea is that all societies face "the problem of violence". They have to deter individuals from resorting to violence in order to take…

From Mark's list on politics and economics in preindustrial societies.

Joshua L. Rosenbloom

Author

As the subtitle suggests the authors of this book do not have modest ambitions. And for the most part, they deliver. Modern economics focuses mainly on market interactions. But those markets are embedded in institutional and personal networks that are undergirded by the use or threat of use of force. This book provides a framework for understanding how the ability to use force undergirds modern political systems and why that matters.

From Joshua's list on understanding the modern capitalist economy.