When I first started reading Jon Wisman` s work, I recalled a long-forgotten pseudo-joke about British people that I heard when I was growing up in Australia. Remember, Australia is a country born of colonialist origins but whose irreverent citizens pride themselves on possessing a well-developed sense of humour and having cast off the vestiges of birthright-derived privilege. The joke was this: what would be the first thing three British immigrants would do to survive if they were marooned on a desert island? Answer: invent a class system! I think the book reminded me of this form of stereotype because its author hit on something that is so fundamental that only intelligent people could miss it – and, indeed, very intelligent people have mostly missed it (but not the one who wrote the book). The missive is: status, hierarchies and inequality did not arise from modernity nor from economics a la capitalism. I am unaware of anyone who has better prosecuted this case – or even really tried - than Jon Wisman, and it is case that – in key ways - renders defunct (or at least marginalises somewhat) much modern penmanship from the likes of Krugman and Piketty. At nearly 500 pages and with few words wasted, The Origins and Dynamics of Inequality: Sex, Politics, and Ideology argues that the struggle over inequality has been the driving force of human history, right back to the beginning of our species. It is a classic in the making. As it`s title indicates, it is about the perennially elusive malaise of inequality, broadly conceived. Although written by a leading American economist, it is really a book about philosophy. It pulls back the lens on a phenomenon which has endured - not just from the dawn of human civilisation - but arguably everywhere where two or more creatures of any kind coexist. In this lens-pulling-back exercise, we get a rare sense of how a mature and reflective scholar conceives of a problem that perhaps touches on their discipline but, at the same time, ranges across disparate domains of intellectual curiosity. Wisman, of course, has a distinguished reputation as a critical social economist and historian. I well knew this before I read his book and, frankly, it worried me a little. I thought, the tome might just have been a “me-too” Piketty-type dissertation. Such a rehashing would not have held my attention and, in my view, would not have been necessary. However, what I ended-up digesting was a book about human nature – one which, quite simply, brings the game together. Moreover, when the book arrived it looked daunting – perhaps also the title is a bit off-putting for someone who just wants to kill some time. However, soon after I started it, I was transfixed. The book is absorbing and a lesson in how to combine data, evidence, quotes, anecdotes, and narrative. It is now a touchstone for me (and my graduate students) when I think about certain of our current projects – or just want to think. As alluded to, Wisman is a rare example of someone who has transcended his discipline. Chapter by chapter – and mostly using the long arc of human history to provide a storyline – he guides the reader in their development of understanding about how inequality instantiated itself into consequential areas of civilisation (and pre-civilisation). Most of this odyssey occurs prior to the industrial revolution. It examines topics such as sexual attraction and selection, the shift from hunter-gathering to agricultural-based forms of human organisation, the rise of the state and extreme inequality, the role of religious …