Now featuring a new preface by Peter Thiel, The Sovereign Individual by Davidson and Rees-Mogg explores the shift to an information-based society, forecasting dramatic changes and opportunities. Now featuring a new preface by Peter Thiel Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the bestseller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization. Few observers of the late twentieth century have their fingers so presciently on the pulse of the global political and economic realignment ushering in the new millennium as do James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg. Their bold prediction of disaster on Wall Street in Blood in the Streets was borne out by Black Tuesday. In their ensuing bestseller, The Great Reckoning, published just weeks before the coup attempt against Gorbachev, they analyzed the pending collapse of the Soviet Union and foretold the civil war in Yugoslavia and other events that have proved to be among the most searing developments of the past few years. In The Sovereign Individual, Davidson and Rees-Mogg explore the greatest economic and political transition in centuries—the shift from an industrial to an information-based society. This transition, which they have termed the fourth stage of human society, will liberate individuals as never before, irrevocably altering the power of government. This outstanding book will replace false hopes and fictions with new understanding and clarified values. CONTENTS1. The Transition of the Year 2000: The Fourth Stage of Human Society2. Megapolitical Transformations in Historic Perspective3. East of Eden: The Agricultural Revolution and the Sophistication of Violence4. The Last Days of Politics: Parallels Between the Senile Decline of the Holy Mother Church and the Nanny State5. The Life and Death of the Nation-State: Democracy and Nationalism as Resource Strategies in the Age of Violence6. The Megapolitics of the Information Age: The Triumph of Efficiency over Power7. Transcending Locality: The Emergence of the Cybereconomy8. The End of Egalitarian Economics: The Revolution in Earnings Capacity in a World Without Jobs9. Nationalism, Reaction, and the New Luddites10. The Twilight of Democracy11. Morality and Crime in the Natural Economy of the Information AgeAfterwordAppendix: Resources for Achieving IndependenceNotesIndex