The Origins of Political Order, by Francis Fukuyama. Fukuyama seems to have a bit of a bad reputation in Lesswrong, but I found it to be quite unjustified. I have quite a lot of background knowledge in history and the first third or so of the book was just crammed with revelations it had taken me years of reading to realize. I think it’s very important to realize that modern, western institutions are not in any sense the default, dependent on certain cultural attitudes, and exactly how various countries managed to not develop them that might have.
The Origins of Political Order, by Francis Fukuyama. Fukuyama seems to have a bit of a bad reputation in Lesswrong, but I found it to be quite unjustified. I have quite a lot of background knowledge in history and the first third or so of the book was just crammed with revelations it had taken me years of reading to realize. I think it’s very important to realize that modern, western institutions are not in any sense the default, dependent on certain cultural attitudes, and exactly how various countries managed to not develop them that might have.