Non-academic readers have at their disposal a mountain of historical works written at every conceivable level of popularization and specialization. But most of these works are devoted to specific historical phenomena, or at the most to a comparison between two or three; and those which attempt more general surveys tend to be either long or else abstract. Where does one turn for a brief summary of the ground-rules? A bluffer's guide to the behaviour of pre-modern societies does not seem to be available. What this book attempts is precisely that: to offer a bluffer's guide to the nature of pre-industrial societies, or more precisely to pre-industrial societies of the complex type (omitting primitive societies whose nature again, is different). It sketches out the general anatomy of all such societies without attempting a full description of any one; and it is neither long nor (it is hoped) abstract.