Why Nations Fail

C
HAPTER
 5 : “I’
VE
 S
EEN THE
 F
UTURE, AND
 I
T
 W
ORKS
”
On Steffens’s mission to Russia and his words to
Baruch, see Steffens (1931), chap. 18, pp. 790–802. For
the number of people who starved in the 1930s, we use the
figures of Davies and Wheatcroft (2004). On the 1937
census numbers, see Wheatcroft and Davies (1994a,
1994b). The nature of innovation in the Soviet economy is
studied in Berliner (1976). Our discussion of how Stalinism,
and particularly economic planning, really worked is based
on Gregory and Harrison (2005). On how writers of U.S.
economics textbooks continually got Soviet economic
growth wrong, see Levy and Peart (2009).
Our treatment and interpretation of the Lele and the
Bushong is based on the research of Douglas (1962,
1963) and Vansina (1978).
On the concept of the Long Summer, see Fagan (2003).
An accessible introduction to the Natufians and
archaeological sites we mention can be found in Mithen
(2006) and Barker (2006). The seminal work on Abu
Hureyra is Moore, Hillman, and Legge (2000), which
documents how sedentary life and institutional innovation
appeared prior to farming. See Smith (1998) for a general
overview of the evidence that sedentary life preceded
farming, and see Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen (1992) for
the case of the Natufians. Our approach to the Neolithic
Revolution is inspired by Sahlins (1972), which also has the
anecdote about the Yir Yoront.
Our discussion of Maya history follows Martin and Grube
(2000) and Webster (2002). The reconstruction of the
population history of Copán comes from Webster, Freter,
and Gonlin (2000). The number of dated monuments is
from Sidrys and Berger (1979).

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