In this interesting book, Justin Jennings explores the social and possible evolutionary underpinnings of humanity's notions of fairness. Jennings is among a short list of archaeologists adept at writing for both a scholarly and more popular audience. This book takes a singular concept and traces it out via all of human history. Jennings does this better than most, and although I think that some of the more complex arguments may be treated superficially—likely in an effort to make them more understandable—the result is a highly readable text that conveys nuanced ideas about an important concept in both world history and modern society.

Although Jennings is clear that his book is not a defense nor a complete exposition of the evolutionary underpinnings of fairness, he does feel that there is evidence for “an evolved sense of fairness underpinning” (p. 18) much of the cultural diversity we observe. Indeed, this evolutionary underpinning does permeate the book, and it is a main part of his primary thesis. Yet, Jennings is fair in his wide-ranging discussion of how such evolutionary roots become altered and filtered by humanity's historical and cultural milieux. One of the more important points of the book is that humans have developed complex institutions that are constructed around a deep-rooted sense of fairness, originating somewhere and sometime in the remote Pleistocene, that is a critical driving factor in how such institutions play out in human societies.

After setting out the general premise of the book, Jennings weaves a narrative that is grounded in the recent past and takes the reader into an evolutionary story to explicate how this sense of fairness, group-mindedness, and cooperation—which he advocates is to some degree a cross-cultural trait—came to be. Critical here was a developed sense of trust. If we could not anticipate that other humans would act fairly, then we could not trust them, thereby making any kind of cooperative effort much more difficult, and making humans more guarded in social interactions. After delving into studies of nonhuman primates and hominin evolution, Jennings considers archaeological case studies at larger scales, beginning with settled village life and then states and empires. Jennings's main point in his discussions of diversely organized societies is that we have never departed from the historical origins of our sense of fairness. This does not mean that there is equality for all but that the concept of fairness is interwoven into various institutions, even when they sometimes seem patently unfair—especially once they are scaled up at a societal level beyond one's kin group and immediate household. One of Jennings's key points is that societies have created and developed new institutions amid circumstances in which older traditions could not be continued and other alternatives would have been perceived as less fair.

This book is a somewhat refreshing respite from others that focus on inequity, warfare, and the like. To be sure, these other topics are well considered in this book, but Jennings brings a different—and to this reader, more interesting—take on some of these core archaeological problems through his interpretive lens focusing on the theme of fairness. One of the great aspects of the volume is that it makes its larger points with reference to a wide variety of case studies, including Teotihuacan; feudal Japan; the Roman, Mongol, and Inka Empires; Great Basin hunter-gatherers; Islamic states; and others. In the penultimate chapter, Jennings brings readers back to the recent past and our present situation and the conditions of modern global capitalism. Even here, the hand of fairness can be observed in the many boom-and-bust cycles of growing and lessening inequalities in the history of the modern world system. One of my disappointments in the volume is that it was not until this chapter that market forces are mentioned in any meaningful way. Although not necessarily global in scope, premodern market systems certainly were key institutions that pervaded many different societies around the world. Tracing out the historical trajectory of market systems, in my mind, is key to understanding the nature of fairness and how it is ensured in a given society. This, however, is a minor complaint.

I enjoyed reading this book. Its wide-ranging case studies, easy-to-read prose, and focus on a singular theme make it a book that would be useful to assign for upper-level undergraduate or graduate anthropology courses. There are certainly many points that a class could discuss and debate, especially given that the last chapter focuses on what lessons studying fairness has for the future of humanity. Scholars will also find its subject matter relevant to academic research and writing, particularly for those interested in collective action, institutional inequity, economic anthropology, and related topics.