Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States

The book "Domestication of the Earliest Civilizations" by James C.

Scott is a groundbreaking work that challenges the conventional narrative on the origins of agriculture and statehood.

This book provides a comprehensive account of the new and surprising evidence that contradicts the standard story, shedding light on the reasons why humans abandoned hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains and governed by precursors of today's states. The author explores the accumulation of domestications that led to the emergence of the first agrarian states, including fire, plants, livestock, subjects of the state, captives, and finally women in the patriarchal family.

He also examines why humans avoided sedentism and plow agriculture, the advantages of mobile subsistence, and the unforeseeable disease epidemics arising from crowding plants, animals, and grain. Moreover, Scott discusses the "barbarians" who long evaded state control, providing insights into the continuing tension between states and nonsubject peoples.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the origins of civilization, law, public order, and the complex relationship between humans and their environment.