Against the Grain by James C. Scott

A single book on a topic covering the emergence of early states, using interdisciplinary scientific research might not cover exactly all points of the debate. This is natural, and no such book in history have existed. That said, Against the Grain does quite a good job trying!

I love books like this, that think outside the box and use knowledge from different fields, compare them and come up with entirely new theories. A lot of what we do today are the complete opposite, increasing specialization and compartmentalisation. Against the Grain does that in a great way, balancing out some of the negative aspects that otherwise come with too broad of a spectrum.

The most radical idea of the book, I’d argue, is why the first states emerged at all. We’re mostly learned in today’s schools that states emerged so that we could have a better life, not because of neccessity. And Scott does raise some great questions and concern in regards to why we would leave the comfort of our 100-150 man strong tight-knit groups for larger groups and the drudgery of farming. We should remember that farming is NOT an easy way to make a living. It takes time, hard work, knowledge, more hard work, and you essentially become the slave of the crop you’re trying to raise. This quote comes to mind:

”For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for pricesly the same reasons.”

• Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

One could argue that the first few states where also the first slave states, either to a human master, or to a simple potato. We should not just assume that life was better with farming just because of the luxurious life it gave us thousands of years later. To the first potato slaves, life weren’t all that great!

The book was also quite an easy, albeit not simple, read. Taking complex topics and distilling them into portions that any reader interested in the topic could handle with ease. The style is generally engaging and, to some extent, even entertaining.

Highly recommended read to anyone interested in history, forming of nation states, food, health, civilization, and the great price our ancestors have paid so we as a humanity can rise and spread our wings after all these years.