Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
On Europe’s Inner Asian frontier, demographic expansion long seemed as hobbled as it was in mainland North America until the 1750s.
John Darwin • After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000
David Stasavage calls “early democracy,” resembling the councils and assemblies of hereditary chiefdoms.
Nathan Schneider • Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life
Human evolution and the ages of globalization have been fundamentally reshaped by natural changes in the Earth’s physical geography.
Jeffrey D. Sachs • The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions
The crafts of metallurgy, ceramics, and even flint working became so refined that they must have required master craft specialists who were patronized and supported by chiefs. In spite of this, power was not obviously centralized in any one village. Perhaps, as John Chapman observed, it was a time when the restricted resources (gold, copper, Spondy
... See moreDavid W. Anthony • The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
Men with no one to look down upon except the enslaved. Men with nothing to lose. Men to fear.