Reading rank 431
The Incas: New Perspectives
, subject: Inca civilization, culture, institutions, and daily life, 2006
The Incas built a great imperial state without wheels, draft animals, hard metals, or writing.
4
Coverage Score
2
Scored evidence
About the book
Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, and ethnohistory, the book explains how the Incas built and governed a major Andean empire without writing, hard metals, the wheel, or draft animals.
Why read it
Best if you are building with limited resources and want a historical example that challenges your assumptions about which tools a large undertaking requires.
Key themes
- Scale without familiar tools
- There is always another way
Evidence and original sources
Sources: official Founders episodes — #107, #175
This record is supported by 2 public evidence rows linked to original Founders episodes.
- Sol Price (Costco) — David reads the same distinctive passage later named in Episode #175 as coming from The Incas: New Perspectives, using the Incas' achievements without wheels, draft animals, hard metals, or writing as a lesson in adaptability, resourcefulness, and rejecting the idea that there is only one right way.
- Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey — David names Gordon McEwan's The Incas: New Perspectives and reads its account of the Incas building a great imperial state without wheels, draft animals, hard metals, or writing to argue that there is always another way to solve a problem.