Author:
David Priestland
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Sign up todayMerchant, Soldier, Sage
A History of the World in Three Castes
Narrator
John Keating
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Length
13 hours 12 minutes
Language
English
A bold new interpretation of modern history as a struggle between three economic groups
We are now living in an age of merchants, but it was not always so. The history of civilization, in large part, is a story of a battle between agrarian aristocracy, the military, and a class of learned experts, or priests. Yet in seventeenth-century England and in the Netherlands, another group entered the mêlée for power: the merchants. For the last four decades, the merchant’s power has been unfettered.
In Merchant, Soldier, Sage, acclaimed Oxford scholar David Priestland proposes a radical new approach to understanding today’s balance of power and analyzes the societal and economic historical conditions required for one of these three value systems to dominate. Priestland asserts that, in the wake of the Great Recession, the weakened and discredited merchant still clings to power—but the world is again in the midst of a period of upheaval.
David Priestland is the author of the widely praised and internationally acclaimed The Red Flag: Communism and the Making of the Modern World. He teaches history at Oxford University and is a fellow of St Edmund Hall.
John Keating is an actor, voice talent, and AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator. His numerous acting credits include Roundabout Theatre’s production of Juno and the Paycock and La Mama ETC’s production of Cat and the Moon, as well as various parts with the Irish Repertory Theater and the Irish Arts Center. He can also be seen in the HBO miniseries John Adams, starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney.
Audiobook details
Narrator:
John Keating
ISBN:
9781665010856
Length:
13 hours 12 minutes
Language:
English
Publisher:
Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:
April 13, 2021
Edition:
Unabridged
Reviews
“We have here a gripping, argument-led history, effortlessly moving between New York, Tokyo and Berlin, from the Reformation to the 2008 economic crisis…Here, at last, is a work that places the current crisis in a longer history of seismic shifts in the balance of social power.”
“Concise but extremely ambitious…well worth pondering and reflecting on…Among the many contributions to the dissection of our current predicament, this is surely one of the most thought-provoking.”
“In illustrating these larger processes of caste conflict and caste collaboration, the author offers crisp portraits of entrepreneurs, economists, and warriors…[with] sparkling prose and…arresting comparisons.”
"[An] investigation into the financial crisis of 2008 and how civilization’s failure to properly rein in the merchant in its wake might negatively affect the future.”
“Priestland is consistently engaging, whether in his discussion of the marshaling of Confucius’s teachings for political ends or in pegging former President George W. Bush as a warrior….Ambitious, well organized, and insightful.”
“Useful, often-clarifying trifocals through which to view the world.”
“Lively, opinionated…The aim of this book is to use the lessons of history to understand the current financial crisis…Priestland has some interesting things to say about why power relationships shift and what happens when they do.”
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