Walter Scheidel is the Dickason Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics and History, and a Kennedy-Grossman Fellow in Human Biology at Stanford University. The author or editor of sixteen previous books, he has published widely on premodern social and economic history, demography, and comparative history. He lives in Palo Alto, California.
One of The Wall Street Journal's What Business Leaders Read in 2017, chosen by Mohamed A. El-Erian Medium.com's Books of the Year 2017, chosen by Mark Koyama The Great Leveler should set off loud alarm bells.... The range of evidence is breathtaking. --Timur Kuran, Foreign Affairs A readable and quirky history of economic inequality from the great apes to the modern day.... It is well worth the read. It is, in a word, gripping. --Victoria Bateman, Times Higher Education Sweeping and provocative. --New Yorker Mr Scheidel's evidence is so persuasive that readers will find themselves cheering on the Black Death as a boost to median wages. --Janan Ganesh, Financial Times Walter Scheidel's The Great Leveler is a smartly argued book.... For anybody who has ever debated issues related to inequality and their broader meaning, this book provides more than just a powerful thought experiment. --Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times A superb book. --Steven Pinker, Times Literary Supplement strategy+business Best Business Book of 2017 in Economics One of World's 2017 Books of the Year in Understanding the World One of the CNBC 13 Best Business Books of 2017 One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Books of 2017: Economics, chosen by Martin Wolf One of the Economist.com 2017 Books of the Year in Economics and Business Selected for The HCSS Bookshelf (chosen by Stephan De Spiegeleire) 2017 One of Project Syndicate's Best Reads in 2017 (chosen by Dambisa Moyo) One of the Microsoft Best Business Books of 2017 One of The New York Times Deal Book Business Books Worth Reading 2017 (chosen by Andrew Sorkin) One of BBC History Magazine's Books of the Year 2017 Shortlisted for the 2017 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award Shortlisted for the 2017 Cundill History Prize, McGill University