Tax and Culture
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Tax scholars traditionally emphasize economics and assume that all tax systems can be evaluated in more or less the same way. By applying the insights of anthropology, sociology, and other social sciences, Michael A. Livingston demonstrates that tax systems frequently pursue different values and that the convergence of tax systems is frequently overstated. In Tax and Culture, he applies these insights to specific countries, such as China and India, and specific tax issues, including progressivity, tax avoidance, and the emerging area of environmental taxation. Livingston concludes that the concept of a global tax culture is, in many cases, merely a reflection of Western hegemony, and is unlikely to survive the changes implicit in the rise of non-Western nations and cultures.
Michael Livingston
Dr Michael Livingston is a Citadel Distinguished Professor and teaches the military and cultural history of the Middle Ages at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. In 2024 he was shortlisted for the Crown Award for Agincourt: Battle of the Scarred King. He co-authored the textbook reader Medieval Warfare, winner of the 2020 Distinguished Book Prize. These add to previous books The Battle of Crécy: A Casebook, winner of the 2017 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History, Never Greater Slaughter: Brunanburh and the Birth of England (Osprey, 2021), and Crécy: Battle of Five Kings (Osprey, 2021). He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and former Secretary-General for the United States Commission on Military History.
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