Merchant, Soldier, Sage

A New History of Power

Professor David Priestland

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English

Penguin
20 November 2013

History; Social & cultural history; Social groups; Political structure & processes

We live in an age ruled by merchants. Competition, flexibility and profit are still the common currency, even at a time when Western countries have been driven off a cliff by these very values. But will it always be this way? This remarkable book proposes a radical new approach to how we see our world, and who runs it, in the vein of Francis Fukuyama's The End of History. Priestland argues for the predominance in any society of one of three broad value systems - that of the merchant (commercial and competitive), the soldier (aristocratic and militaristic), and the sage (bureaucratic or creative). These 'castes' struggle alongside the worker (egalitarian and artisanal) for power, and when they achieve supremacy, they can have such a strong hold over us that it is almost impossible to imagine life outside their grip. And yet there comes a point of drastic change, usually because one caste becomes too dominant. The result is economic crisis, war or revolution, and eventually a new caste takes over. Priestland argues we are now in the midst of a period with all the classic signs of imminent change. As the history of the last century shows, there is good reason to be fearful of the forces that this failure may unleash. This book is both a masterful dissection of our current predicament and a brilliant piece of history. The world will not look the same again.

By: Professor David Priestland
Imprint: Penguin
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 258g
ISBN: 9780241955215
ISBN 10: 0241955211
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 20 November 2013
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

David Priestland is the author of the widely-praised and internationally acclaimed The Red Flag: Communism and the Making of the Modern World. While researching The Red Flag it became clear that it was neither Marx's 'classes', nor Huntingdon's clashing civilizations, nor even Fukuyama's competing ideologies that drove historical change, but 'caste struggle'. Merchant, Soldier, Sage is the result. He teaches history at Oxford University and is a Fellow of St. Edmund Hall.

Reviews for Merchant, Soldier, Sage: A New History of Power

Very readable ... [Priestland's] studies of Communism have given him an enviable grasp of 19th- and 20th-century developments across the globe, and he writes with such verve ... Priestland casts an intriguing glimmer of light on what may be ahead * Independent Radar Book of the Week * Diverting and provocative -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times * An intriguing way of analysing society ... This is a refreshing description of society, and a thought-provoking one ... it a real attempt to break out of established ways of thinking, and should be applauded * Mail on Sunday * Lively and opinionated * Economist * 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 -- Sir Richard J Evans * Guardian * Stimulating ... In illustrating these larger processes of caste conflict and caste collaboration, the author offers crisp portraits of entrepreneurs, economists and warriors ... Sparkling prose and ... arresting comparisons -- Ramachandra Guha * Financial Times * A gripping, argument-led history ... dazzling ... here, at last, is a work that places the current crisis in a longer history of seismic shifts in the balance of social power -- Frank Trentman * BBC History Magazine *