The Power of Scale: A Global History Approach

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: Imperia and the Power of Scale -- Imperia, Social Power, and Scale -- Three Cultural Worlds: Tribal, Imperial, and Commercial -- Great Cultural Transformations -- Quality of Life in the Tribal World -- The Irreducible Minimum in the Tribal World -- Political Imperia and Conditional Rights in the Imperial World -- The Commercial World and Capitalism -- 2. Imperia in Three Worlds -- Domestic Imperia in the Amazon Rain Forest: The Ashaninka -- Circles of Kings: Political Imperia in Southeast Asian Kingdoms -- The Thai Kingdom, 1782-1932 -- Modern Thai and Balinese Imperia -- Commercial Imperia: The United States, 1998 -- 3. Why Scale Matters -- Power Laws, Energy, and the Disproportions of Scale -- The Illusion of Evolutionary Progress -- Culture, Biology, and the Problem of Size -- Human Community, Society, and Scale -- Scale Limits in the Tribal World: Australian Bands -- Scale Limits to Power in the Tribal World: The Ashaninka -- The Power of Scale in the Urbanization Process -- Bureaucracy and Domination -- Scale, Imperia, and Growth Trajectories -- 4. The Political Elite Take Power -- Crossing the Great Divide from Tribal to Imperial Worlds -- Village Headman to Divine King in Southeast Asia -- Beyond 500: Scalar Stress and Urban Growth -- Elite Payoff: Mates, Servants, and Palaces -- Strategies of Domination in the Ancient Imperial World -- The Romans: Conquerors and Slaves in a Legionary Economy -- 5. The Rise of European Commercial Elites -- Urban Growth and the Origins of Capitalism, 1100-1600 -- Medieval City-States and the Medici Imperium -- Crisis as Opportunity: England, 1500-1688 -- Landed and Monied Interests in the London Financial Revolution, 1600-1900.