Ancient Agriculture Part 2 (6/1/21 Episode 11)

green cover with fields and tractor of Agriculture in World History by Mark B Tauger — Book is currently running $40-70 on Amazon. I should have checked before recording the podcast. Sorry!

In this episode of the podcast, I thank my listeners for allowing me last week off and vent a bit about my sudden math class I have to take. I’m currently crowdfunding for this through my Ko-fi. Can you help? Even $3 (one “coffee”) will help a bunch.

Can you help? Visit my Ko-Fi.

Given that the price of the book went up since I’d purchased it last fall, you can listen to this podcast to get all the goodies. But I’ve also included the book’s Amazon link too if you’re interested.

In this episode I move onto chapter two, and assure you that I will NOT be going through the book chapter by chapter. However, chapter two discusses Ancient Greece (SPARTA!!!!!!) and Rome, including the two very different ways of not just finding people to grow food, but also dealing with the inevitable (because history shows we can’t treat people nicely) peasant revolts.

From peasant rights to trying to eliminate the enslavement of poor individuals, this short episode explains some of the earliest agrarian reform laws and why neither method works very well. (Hint: The status quo always tries to save itself.)

I also contrast this with China, which had its own problems to deal with, namely about 1800 natural disasters, and why centralized power doesn’t work in an age without mass transport and communication like we have today.

I hope you enjoy.