Much of human history has consisted of unequal conflicts between the haves and the have-nots.

The rate of human invention is faster, and the rate of cultural loss is slower, in areas occupied by many competing societies with many individuals and in contact with societies elsewhere.

One person making a wrong decision affects the whole country.

Some people have much more pull than other people. But when I say that the public has ultimate responsibility, I'm not saying it in a moral sense. I'm just saying it in the sense of what is it that's really going to bring change.

We study the injustices of history for the same reason that we study genocide, and for the same reason that psychologists study the minds of murderers and rapists... to understand how those evil things came about.

We're uncomfortable about considering history as a science. It's classified as a social science, which is considered not quite scientific.

A blueprint for disaster in any society is when the elite are capable of insulating themselves.