Karl A. Wittfogel
Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power.
Yale University Press, 1959. Third printing. xix/556 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6.5" x 9.5", is bound in black cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book displays moderate wear, with light foxing to top edge of text block. Binding is firm. Interior is clean and bright. Dust jacket, with price of $8.50 on front flap, exhibits sunning to spine and two small closed tears at edges. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover. 
"Professor Wittfogel believes that the peculiar forms of Oriental despotism -- not limited to the Orient -- had their origin in societies where irrigation was a matter of life and death to the people and their crops, and control  of the watercourses was in the hands of the ruler and his bureaucracy. He has investigated an enormous quantity of first-hand material to explain the character of these societies, and his book, half a lifetime in preparation, has been greeted by competent scholars as a work of first importance."