Against the Grain
A Deep History of the Earliest States
by James C. Scott
Should I read this?
Recommended by 2 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books, History, and Nonfiction.
An Economist Best History Book 2017 History as it should be written.Barry Cunliffe, Guardian Scott hits the nail squarely on the head by exposing the staggering price our ancestors paid for civilization and political order.Walter Scheidel, Financial Times Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livest...
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Why recommended
Recommended by 2 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books, History, and Nonfiction.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
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Appears In
Not sure if this is the right fit?
Consider Accidental Presidents by Jared Cohen. Recommended by 10 sources.
“Accidental Presidents offers eight narrative portraits of men who succeeded to the U.S. presidency without election, using anecdote-rich scenes and readable context to show how personality and circumstance interact with office power. It’s strongest as a set of self-contained stories that make succession stakes concrete for non-specialist readers; it does not prioritize dense archival argument or exhaustive methodology, so expect some interpretive generalizations and repeated themes across cases. Use it for fast historical orientation rather than scholarly deep-dives.”
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Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.
Against the Grain
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