Is the Pre Modern History Right?

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There is a book called the dawn of everything by David graver and David when grow which I've thought about reading. Their claim for what it's worth is that getting the pre modern history right helps us imagine what is possible now. Maybe there are ways of organizing our economy or our government that are that we can't seemingly imagine because we're so burdened by the status quo of the present. So I'm not sure I'm fully convinced by their argument, but I could say that if you think of really these questions, why do we have in most of Western countries states governments that control about half of their income?

Since at least Adam Smith, the common wisdom has been that the transition from hunter-gathering to farming allowed the creation of the State. Farming, so went the theory, led to agricultural surplus, and that surplus is the prerequisite for taxation and a State. But economist Omer Moav of the University of Warwick and Reichman University argues that it wasn't farming but the farming of a particular kind of crop (but not others) that led to hierarchy and the State. Moav explains to EconTalk host Russ Roberts storability is the key dimension that allows for taxation and a State. The conversation includes a discussion of why it's important to understand the past and the challenges of confirming or refuting theories about history.