Description
Book SynopsisSocieties with common-property systems maintaining strong equality and extensive freedom were initially nearly ubiquitous around the world, and that the private property rights system was established through a long series of violent state-sponsored aggressions.
Trade Review"This book fills an important interdisciplinary need in joining anthropology to philosophy. It continues the argument Widenquist and McCall started in their earlier book, Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy. Both books debunk out-of-date and incorrect assumptions about human society that somehow remain foundational in political philosophy. The prior book focused on the ideas of Thomas Hobbes, and The Prehistory of Private Property develops and expands this line of thought. The authors do a real service by opening up comparative scholarship to new perspectives about the inevitability of inequality, capitalist markets, and private property. Anyone interested in how human societies operate and how western scholars have portrayed them will find this a compelling read." -Michael E. Smith, Arizona State University
