With these words, Tyler Cowen sold me on War & Peace & War:
So argues Peter Turchin — a professor of ecology — in his recent War & Peace & War: The Life Cycles of Imperial Nations. Imagine Jared Diamond’s method extended into the formation of empires and the origins of war, with a dose of Hari Seldon, and you have this book.
So what is Turchin arguing?
- Some societies face multiethnic frontiers, and they respond by developing higher levels of cooperation. You have to bind together to clear out and kill those Indians.
- Eventually the result is empire.
- Empires decay. They wallow in luxury and the preconditions behind their previously high levels of cooperation go away.
- The ability to cooperate is the key variable in human history.