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| Preface | |
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| Evolution and Early Human Societies | |
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| Physical and Cultural Evolution: Differences and Similarities | |
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| Causes of Change in Early Societies | |
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| From Collecting, Hunting, and Fishing to Agriculture | |
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| Reference Notes | |
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| Agrarian Societies | |
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| The Invention of the State | |
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| Class, Status, and Force: Increasing Inequality and Making It Hereditary | |
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| Nomads, Migrants, and Other Raiders | |
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| Great Cultures: The Moral Basis of Agrarian Civilizations | |
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| The Problem of Administration and the Cycle of Political Decay and Reconstruction | |
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| The Conservatism of Village Life | |
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| The Demographic Cycle in Agrarian Societies | |
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| The Potential for Rapid Innovation: The Importance of Peripheries | |
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| The Limits of Analogy: Societies Are Not Species, and Cultural Evolution Is Not Biological | |
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| Reference Notes | |
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| The Rise of the West | |
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| Europe's Ecological Advantages | |
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| Religious Discordance and Political Stalemate: The Basis for Western Rationalization | |
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| Science, Knowledge, and Exploration in China and Western Europe | |
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| The Growth of European Empires and the Transformation of the Economy | |
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| Overcoming the Agrarian Population Cycle | |
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| The Invention of Nationalism and Its Consequences | |
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| The Legitimation of Commerce: The Ideological Basis of the Industrial Revolution | |
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| Reference Notes | |
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| The Modern Era | |
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| Industrial Cycles | |
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| Internal and International Social Consequences of Modernization and Industrial Cycles | |
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| Economic Class and Political Power in Modern Societies | |
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| Political Ideologies and Protests: Two Centuries of Revolutions | |
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| The Unending Effort to Adapt to Modernity | |
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| Ecological Pressures Persist | |
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| Reference Notes | |
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| Toward a Theory of Social Change | |
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| Why Change Occurs | |
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| The New or the Old? The Paradox of Institutional Resistance to Change | |
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| Freedom or Control? The Dilemma of the Modern Era | |
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| Reference Notes | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| Index | |
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| About the Author | |