The Origin of Politics

Why it’s on the list: Wade’s argument that political ideologies compete against an older set of rules for organizing human society — family, tribe, and inherited social structure — and lose when they ignore them.

Where I saw it: Cited by @herandrews on X (September 21, 2025), quoting Wade’s claim that a given institutional arrangement is a “radical experiment unprecedented in human history” with “unknown consequences.”

Connections

• Ideological Family Tree — the book’s subject: where political programs come from and what constrains them.
• People Over Politics — human social structure as prior to political structure.