Merchant, Soldier, Sage, David Priestland
Merchant, Soldier, Sage, David Priestland
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Merchant, Soldier, Sage
A History of the World in Three Castes

Author: David Priestland

Narrator: John Keating

Unabridged: 13 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/12/2021

Synopsis

A bold new interpretation of modern history as a struggle between three economic groupsWe 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.

About David Priestland

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.

About John Keating

John Keating is a prominent New York stage actor who works frequently with both the Irish Rep (twenty-five shows) and Theatre for a New Audience (six shows) in addition to many other companies, and received the Callaway Award in 2019. He has appeared in dozens of films and TV shows and has narrated almost 200 audiobooks (three Audie nominations and one win).

Reviews

Goodreads review by Peter on January 07, 2017

I have to admit that I ignored this book for quite a while, because of the title and my personal weariness with similarly-labelled archetypal models invariably attached to some spiritual outcome or direction. I tend also not to notice review statements, unless by individuals. Having said that, I jus......more

Goodreads review by Olga on April 08, 2013

Either I don't know anything about history, or this book is filled with inaccurate, or at least insanely overgeneralized, statements. The Soviet Union was soldierly? The US is not? What about the ancient empires he mentions that probably didn't work as he described them? Why were the 1920's, andnot......more

Goodreads review by David on September 17, 2017

This was excellent. A really useful way of looking at history through a different lens and one that can convincingly help explain the rise of Donald Trump and Brexit (crucially, this book was published in 2012 before this was apparent to most commentators). It also provides a better understanding of......more

Goodreads review by Caren on May 19, 2013

As soon as I saw this book, I knew I wanted to read it. I suppose I always have the hope that we, as humans, can look back at what people have done in the past and learn a few lessons. Why else study history? The writer teaches modern history at the University of Oxford, so to me, he seemed qualifie......more

Goodreads review by Alastair on March 11, 2019

I struggled with this book to start with, I found the uses of 'castes' too facile, although by the end I had found it an easy and reasonable read that was quite sparing historically, although fortunately it was no Whiggish history. At the end, in an appendix, it is explained that the book is an attem......more

Quotes

“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

“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)

"[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

“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

“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)

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