Overview

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.

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9781665010801

Table of Contents

Reviews

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. -- The Guardian (London) 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. -- Financial Times (London) 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. -- Publishers Weekly Useful, often-clarifying trifocals through which to view the world. -- Kirkus 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. -- BBC History Magazine [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. -- Daily Beast

"""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."" -- ""The Economist (London)"" ""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."" -- ""The Guardian (London)"" ""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."" -- ""Financial Times (London)"" ""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."" -- ""Publishers Weekly"" ""Useful, often-clarifying trifocals through which to view the world."" -- ""Kirkus 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."" -- ""BBC History Magazine"" [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."" -- ""Daily Beast"""

Author Information

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's 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 is a regular performer with the Independent Shakespeare Company and can also be seen in the HBO original mini-series John Adams, starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. John's audiobook narrations have earned Earphone Awards and an Audie nomination. Most notably, he's read Eoin Colfer's Airman, Avi's The Traitors' Gate, and Jenny Nimmo's The Snow Spider. He also lent his voice to An Irish Country Doctor and An Irish Country Village, both by Patrick Taylor.

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