War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires [Paperback]

In War and Peace and War,Peter Turchin uses his expertise in evolutionary biology to offer a bold new theory about the course of world history. 

Turchin argues that the key to the formation of an empire is a society’s capacity for collective action. He demonstrates that high levels of cooperation are found where people have to band together to fight off a common enemy, and that this kind of cooperation led to the formation of the Roman and Russian empires, and the United States. But as empires grow, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, conflict replaces cooperation, and dissolution inevitably follows. Eloquently argued and rich with historical examples,War and Peace and Waroffers a bold new theory about the course of world history with implications for nations today. 

Introduction
So Peace Brings Warre and Warre Brings Peace

Part I. Imperiogenesis—The Rise of Empires

1. A Band of Adventurers Defeats a Kingdom
Ermak's Conquering Cossacks

2. Life on the Edge
The Transformation of Russia—and America

3. Slaughter in the Forest
At theLimitesof the Roman Empire

4. Asabiya in the Desert
Ibn Khaldun Discovers the Key to History

5. The Myth of Self-Interest
And the Science of Cooperation

6. Born to Be Wolves
The Origins of Rome

7. A Medieval Black Hole
The Rise of the Great European Powers on Carolingian Marches

Part II. Imperiopathosis—The Fall of Empires

8. The Other Side of the Wheel of Fortune
From the Glorious Thirteenth Century into the Abyss of the Fourteenth

9. A New Idea of Renaissance
Why Human Conflict Is Like a Forest Fire and an Epidemic

10. The Matthew Principle
Why the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer

11. Wheels Within Whlăg