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After much grumbling and gnashing of teeth, I finished the first novel in ERB's Barsoom series. I asked ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
womzilla if I had to read the others before I reviewed the whole 3-volume set. He said yes, then offered to take the project off my hands. I accepted with a touch of guilt and a hell of a lot of relief.
Meanwhile I'm reading The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter, and believe it or not it's an easier read for me, even though he prefers the "functionalist" school of state formation to the "conflict" school, and I think "functionalist" arguments are hopelessly teleological. ("Functionalists" think the state emerged because people needed it. "Conflict" theorists think states began when a bunch of guys got together, beat people up and took their stuff. Needless to say I'm a conflict theorist...)
womzilla if I had to read the others before I reviewed the whole 3-volume set. He said yes, then offered to take the project off my hands. I accepted with a touch of guilt and a hell of a lot of relief.Meanwhile I'm reading The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter, and believe it or not it's an easier read for me, even though he prefers the "functionalist" school of state formation to the "conflict" school, and I think "functionalist" arguments are hopelessly teleological. ("Functionalists" think the state emerged because people needed it. "Conflict" theorists think states began when a bunch of guys got together, beat people up and took their stuff. Needless to say I'm a conflict theorist...)
