This two-volume collection of primary documents covers societies across
different geographical regions during the last 5,000 years. While
chronologically and geographically comprehensive in scope, this reader
will focus on a central theme: the unequal allocation of wealth and
power both within individual societies and between different polities
ranging from small city-states to large territorial empires. The
selected documents reveal that people living at different times and in
different places have used similar methods to achieve similar political
and economic objectives. By reflecting uniformities as well as
diversities in ideas and actions, these documents undermine assertions
of Western intellectual, cultural, or moral superiority.