Through the Needle's Eye

Contemporary elites use the idea of freedom to confuse mislead and rationalize their power over large numbers of the worlds people. Todays ruling class of big capitalists ensures that few of us learn much about their sources of wealth power and control. Elite rule has depended upon a widespread lack of freedom for non-elites whose life-chances are circumscribed by elite power. This book is an enquiry into the origins and development of elite rule from its beginnings through antiquity the Middle Ages and the development of capitalism in the early modern period. Still operative today are components or by-products of earlier elite class rule: religion patriarchy wars for empire the enemy Other and opposition movements like democracy. This volume traces these trends and countertrends and explores their development as elites struggled to maintain their power against slave peasant and working class opposition.