[Cato Institute] From the ancient origins of their craft, historians have used their work to defend the interests of established powerful interests and regimes. In the modern period, and especially in recent decades, however, a necessary corrective has taken place. Monopoly & King Mob provides readers with dozens of documents from the Early Modern and Modern periods to suggest that the best history is that which accounts for change both 'from above' and 'from below' in the social hierarchy. When we ignore average and marginalized people to endlessly study states, politicians, military leaders, great business leaders, and elite philosophers, we skew our view of how the world became the way it is and we risk further concentrating power in the hands of a privileged few.