Although Creveld describes his book as a history, it is also a polemic. But this dual purpose does not detract from either the history or the argument and, indeed, helps clarify both the concept and its effects.
Creveld lists various kinds of equality, such as equality before God and here on earth, of body, of mind, civic, political, opportunity, and so on, pointing out that the list is virtually inexhaustible.
"That is why equality is impossible to define�and also why, instead of engaging in a hopeless attempt to do so, I have chosen to write its history instead," he explains.
In 11 chapters, Creveld traces the origins of equality from earliest times, its development, various forms, and its costs and benefits. He begins with a survey of the animal kingdom, focusing on primates.
He then examines simple human societies, from foragers to tribes. After this, he gets into the meat of the issues, tracing the origin of the concept as a political ideal to the ancient Greeks in 650 BCE, and then again after 1650 with the publication of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes and then, in its first modern implementation, in 1776 with the founding of the United States of America.
His thesis is that "Where there is no equality there can be neither justice nor liberty. On the other hand, equality itself is not without its dangers. Should it be pushed too far, it can easily reach the point where it limits, or even eliminates, both liberty AND justice."
His history includes subjects from socialism to racism to liberalism.
His core questions, rigorously tackled throughout the book, are: Is there any sense in which equality is natural? If not, when did the idea begin and why? What forms has it assumed? What role has it played in history?
He focuses on Western society, since he argues that equality as a coherent idea did not exist in other civilisations and, where similar concepts existed, they were implemented politically or socially.
He notes, for example, an argument by Chinese reformer Sun Yat Sen, who lobbied for political equality but reassured his audience that this would not replace "true equality," which in China placed the sage at the top of the social ladder and the dullard at the bottom.
Creveld's treatment of the pursuit of political equality in the West highlights the ironic outcome, in that "All the regimes claiming to be built on the doctrines of Marx and Engels did was created inequalities of an altogether unprecedented and often particularly vicious sort."
His chapter on racism is especially interesting, tracing its existence in different cultures, and its especially virulent form in Nazi Germany (perhaps betraying Creveld's bias as a Jew and Israeli).
His chapter on feminism undermines conventional wisdom, asserting that "For every disadvantage under which women laboured there almost always was, and still is, some privileges they alone enjoyed."
You may not agree with all of Creveld's arguments, but there is much in this book that you will not find in standard histories.
Equality: The Impossible Quest by Martin van Creveld. Castalia House, 2015ASIN:B00UVLE20W; 282 pages.
?Book review byKevin Baldeosingh
