Equality: The History of an Elusive Idea describes how the concept of equality has been defined and applied through the ages, focusing mostly on the Western world. From hunter-gatherers to early civilizations, a passel of philosophers, the French revolution, Marxism and Fascism, we see that humans have mostly defined equality as something for the in-group to enjoy, and the in-group can be very small indeed. They’ve also struggled to establish whether equality requires leveling off or allows differences, and if so, how much.
The author is wonderfully erudite and both the concepts and the elaboration of them requires effortful reading.
FT's Books 