The Great Leveler
Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century
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Summary
Cataclysmic upheavals have a sinister side effect—they level the scales of economic disparity. Walter Scheidel's "The Great Leveler" dares to unravel the grim tapestry of history, where peace and prosperity often sow the seeds of inequality, while the chaos of war, plague, and revolution ruthlessly prune it. This audacious chronicle sweeps across millennia, exposing the unsettling truth that only in the wake of ruin do societies inch toward equality. From the fiery crucible of world wars to the shattering implosion of empires, Scheidel meticulously dissects the "Four Horsemen" that repeatedly flattened the fortunes of the elite. With incisive clarity, this provocative narrative challenges our yearning for a more equitable future, posing the uncomfortable question: can true equality ever emerge without the scourge of destruction? Dive into a world where the forces that tear us apart may paradoxically draw us closer together.
Introduction
Picture this: in 1938, Japan's wealthiest one percent controlled nearly 20 percent of the nation's income. Seven years later, their share had plummeted to just 6.4 percent. What force could accomplish such a dramatic redistribution of wealth in such a short time? The answer lies not in peaceful reform or gradual policy changes, but in the crucible of total war. Throughout human history, extreme inequality has been the norm rather than the exception. From ancient Rome to medieval Europe, from imperial China to colonial America, the gap between rich and poor has consistently widened during periods of peace and stability. Yet this seemingly inexorable trend has been punctuated by moments of dramatic leveling, when the concentration of wealth and power suddenly collapsed. These moments share a common thread: they were all born of violence. This exploration reveals how four horsemen of leveling have repeatedly reshaped human societies: mass mobilization warfare, transformative revolution, state collapse, and deadly pandemics. Each has proven capable of accomplishing what peaceful means rarely achieve - the rapid and substantial reduction of economic inequality. For anyone seeking to understand the forces that have shaped our economic landscape, from policymakers grappling with rising inequality to citizens wondering whether change is possible, this historical perspective offers both sobering realities and unexpected insights into the true drivers of social transformation.
Ancient Patterns: From Egalitarian Origins to Imperial Hierarchies
For most of human existence, our ancestors lived in small, mobile bands where extreme inequality was virtually impossible. Hunter-gatherers possessed few material goods, and what little they had was difficult to accumulate or pass down to children. The invention of projectile weapons and the evolution of language allowed coalitions of the weak to challenge individual strongmen, creating what anthropologists call "reverse dominance hierarchy." Leadership was temporary and situational, based on specific skills rather than inherited status. Everything changed with the agricultural revolution around 11,000 years ago. The domestication of plants and animals created something unprecedented: storable surplus. For the first time, some individuals could accumulate resources beyond immediate needs and pass them to their children. Archaeological evidence from sites like Varna in Bulgaria reveals the emergence of spectacular inequality - one burial from 5,000 years ago contained a man covered in nearly three pounds of gold, possessing more precious metal than entire communities had previously seen. The rise of states amplified these inequalities exponentially. Political power became a pathway to wealth as rulers and their allies extracted tribute, controlled trade routes, and redistributed resources to their supporters. The original "one percent" was born - a class that combined political authority with economic dominance in ways that would persist for millennia. From Mesopotamian kings to Roman senators, from Chinese mandarins to Aztec nobles, the pattern remained consistent: those who controlled the machinery of state captured the lion's share of society's wealth. By the height of ancient civilizations, inequality had reached levels that would not be seen again until the industrial age. Roman senators commanded wealth equivalent to entire provincial budgets, while the majority of the population lived in poverty. This extreme concentration wasn't an accident but the natural result of systems designed to funnel resources upward, creating the template for inequality that would dominate human societies for thousands of years.
The Four Horsemen: War, Revolution, Collapse and Plague as Levelers
While inequality rose steadily throughout most of human history, it was not an unstoppable force. Across cultures and centuries, four types of violent shocks repeatedly leveled the playing field between rich and poor. These "Four Horsemen of Leveling" shared a crucial characteristic: they disrupted the normal mechanisms through which elites accumulated and preserved their advantages. Mass mobilization warfare, exemplified by the two World Wars, demanded unprecedented sacrifice from entire populations. To maintain legitimacy while conscripting millions of young men, governments had no choice but to "conscript wealth" as well. Progressive taxation soared, excess profits were seized, and the normal operations of capital markets were suspended. Physical destruction, inflation, and government controls combined to devastate elite fortunes while wartime labor shortages empowered ordinary workers. Transformative revolutions, particularly communist ones, attacked inequality at its source by abolishing private property altogether. From Russia in 1917 to China in 1949, revolutionary movements systematically dismantled existing economic hierarchies and redistributed assets to the masses. The violence was often staggering - tens of millions perished in the Soviet Union and China - but the leveling was equally dramatic. State collapse eliminated the very institutions that protected elite wealth and privilege. When the Western Roman Empire crumbled in the fifth century, the vast estates and commercial networks that had enriched the senatorial class simply vanished. Archaeological evidence shows a dramatic flattening of material inequality as complex hierarchies gave way to simpler, more egalitarian societies. Lethal pandemics, like the Black Death that killed one-third of Europe's population in the fourteenth century, fundamentally altered the balance between labor and capital. With workers suddenly scarce, wages doubled or tripled while land rents collapsed, creating temporary golden ages for common laborers.
The Great Compression: World Wars and Modern Leveling (1914-1980s)
The period from 1914 to 1945 witnessed the most dramatic reduction in inequality in recorded history. What Charles de Gaulle called "the drama of the thirty years war" transformed societies across the globe, creating levels of economic equality not seen since the hunter-gatherer era. The mechanism was total war - conflict so comprehensive that it mobilized entire populations and economies for the struggle. Consider the transformation of the United States during World War II. The top one percent's share of national income fell from 16 percent in 1940 to 11 percent in 1945, while the top 0.01 percent saw their share collapse by 40 percent. This wasn't merely a temporary wartime phenomenon - it represented a fundamental restructuring of American society. Progressive taxation reached unprecedented levels, with top marginal rates hitting 94 percent. The National War Labor Board compressed wages by approving increases for low-paid workers while freezing executive compensation. Similar patterns emerged across the developed world. In France, two devastating wars destroyed a third of the national capital stock in World War I and two-thirds in World War II. Hyperinflation wiped out bondholders, rent controls impoverished landlords, and nationalization programs transferred private assets to public control. The value of the largest French fortunes fell by more than 90 percent between 1914 and 1945. The Great Compression wasn't simply about destroying wealth - it fundamentally altered the relationship between capital and labor. Trade union membership soared, social insurance expanded, and new norms of corporate governance emerged that prioritized stakeholders over shareholders. These changes, born of wartime necessity, persisted for decades after the guns fell silent, creating the relatively egalitarian societies of the mid-twentieth century that many still remember as a golden age of shared prosperity.
Contemporary Paradox: Inequality's Return in the Post-Violence Era
The leveling effects of the world wars began to fade by the 1980s, ushering in a new era of rising inequality that continues today. The top one percent's share of income in the United States has returned to levels not seen since the 1920s, while wealth concentration has reached heights that would have been familiar to the Gilded Age robber barons. This resurgence reflects the absence of the violent shocks that historically compressed inequality. Modern attempts at peaceful leveling have proven largely ineffective. Educational expansion, technological change, and democratic governance - often touted as solutions to inequality - have failed to reverse the trend. Even the most progressive tax systems pale in comparison to the confiscatory rates imposed during wartime. The welfare states built in the aftermath of the world wars have been gradually eroded by globalization, technological change, and political shifts. The four horsemen of leveling that once reshaped societies now seem unlikely to ride again. Nuclear weapons have made total war between major powers unthinkable, while modern medicine has largely tamed the pandemic diseases that once devastated populations. Communist revolution has been discredited by its own excesses, and today's states are far more resilient than their historical predecessors. The traditional mechanisms of violent leveling appear to be dormant, perhaps permanently. This leaves us with a sobering question: if peaceful means have historically proven inadequate to address extreme inequality, and violent leveling is no longer feasible or desirable, what does the future hold? Some point to technological disruption or climate change as potential new levelers, but their effects remain uncertain. Others argue that democratic institutions, properly designed, might yet find ways to achieve what violence once accomplished. The historical record suggests that significant reductions in inequality have always required extraordinary circumstances - typically involving massive disruption to existing social and economic arrangements.
Summary
The great lesson of history is both simple and disturbing: extreme inequality has been the human norm, and its reduction has almost always required extreme violence. From the hunter-gatherer bands of the Paleolithic to the industrial societies of the twentieth century, periods of peace and stability have consistently favored the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few. Only the most catastrophic disruptions - total wars, revolutionary upheavals, state collapses, and deadly pandemics - have proven capable of leveling the playing field. This pattern reveals a fundamental tension at the heart of human civilization. The same institutions that promote prosperity, innovation, and cultural achievement - stable governments, secure property rights, and sophisticated financial systems - also enable and protect extreme concentrations of wealth. The wealthy use their advantages to secure even greater advantages, creating a self-reinforcing cycle that peaceful reform has rarely been able to break. Today's rising inequality thus represents not an aberration but a return to historical norms after the exceptional leveling of the mid-twentieth century. If we wish to create more egalitarian societies without resorting to the violence that historically accomplished this goal, we must develop entirely new approaches. This might involve radically reimagining our economic institutions, creating new forms of wealth taxation that prove more durable than past efforts, or harnessing technological change in ways that benefit the many rather than the few. The stakes could not be higher - for the alternative to peaceful leveling may ultimately be no leveling at all.
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By Walter Scheidel
