Some historians attribute the triumph of the state over stateless bands of hunter-gatherers to the state’s comparative advantage in exploiting the fruits of the Agricultural Revolution. Although insightful, their approach often ignores the importance of ideology and underestimates the possibility that a modern stateless society could successfully defend itself from aggressors.
Jeffrey Rogers Hummel is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor of Economics at San Jose State University.
Defense and Foreign PolicyGovernment and PoliticsLaw and LibertyPolitical Theory
Other Independent Review articles by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
Winter 2022/23 Operation Keelhaul: Forced Repatriation after World War II
Spring 2014 The Inevitability of a U.S. Government Default
Spring 2011 Ben Bernanke versus Milton Friedman: The Federal Reserve’s Emergence as the U.S. Economy’s Central Planner
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