AFTER EDEN

First came the Garden of Eden. It’s been all downhill ever since.

In his latest book, Chasteen, the author of Americanos and Born in Blood and Fire, examines the consequences of the human transition from small bands of hunters and gatherers to large villages of agriculturalists—and now, megalopolises fueled by industry and commerce. While interpersonal violence isn’t unknown in those smaller societies, and while “Paleolithic life was really no paradise, even if it suited human beings, in some ways, more than the life we lead now,” when you put people into permanent houses and high population densities, the situation often gets worse: Farming begets warfare, in Chasteen’s schema, and war begets patriarchy and control. It took less than 1,000 years for farming societies to develop a class or caste hierarchy “dominated most often by a warrior nobility and a hereditary kingship.” From there, the author proceeds to examine the evolution of ever more powerful polities. Chasteen ventures some interesting observations—e.g., that Buddhism traveled east and not west from India because while China was receptive to new beliefs, lacking any formal state religion, Zoroastrian and Muslim Persia proved a powerful barrier. The author does not hesitate to suggest that the ongoing post–Cold War spread of consumer culture hasn’t done the planet much good. On that note, he considers Russia’s war on Ukraine against the context of an ever more apparent global climate crisis: “We can’t lift two fingers as a world community when it comes to saving the planet, it seems, but an international war with tanks and rockets? Now that is something we can relate to!” Given the track record of humankind since our metaphorical fall from grace, readers can be forgiven if they are pessimistic about the possibility of the world’s nations banding together to avert catastrophe.

Can we save ourselves from ourselves? To judge by this well-researched book, it might be best not to put money on it.