“Clan communism * Autocratic Monarchy * Feudalism * Capitalism * Socialism * Communism
This is the Communist view of history, as set out by Marx and Engels, looking out over the wreck of the various social revolutions what were destroyed in the 1840s and dreaming of inevitable victory in the future. First we have the primitive clan communism of hunter-gatherer families; then once irrigated riverine agriculture is developed, the ancient autocratic monarchies, which endure as empires until they collapse from the weight of their own military-bureaucracy into the more enduring feudalism. With the growth of cities and maritime trading nations, feudalism matures into capitalism, which through the dictates of growth, decency, and efficiency evolves into industrialized socialism, which perfects as communism.
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
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