Applying social evolutionary theory to the analysis of the development of the earliest states, Yoffee (Near Eastern studies and anthropology, U. of Michigan) contends that much of what has been written about early states is factually wrong and implausible, especially the "myth" that the earliest stats can be uniformly described as "large territorial systems ruled by totalitarian despots who controlled the flow of goods, services, and information and imposed true law and order on their subjects." He describes the variety of trajectories towards ancient cities and states, examines cases of how people constructed their social lives in different early states, considers constraints on state formation and mechanisms of early state collapse, and sketches out the evolution of Mesopotamian states and civilization. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)