I've never really thought about how the idea of equality has been shaped through history. It's always been an equality vs inequality idea, but Darrin McMahon provides a key argument that there's a story that has been missing. Undoubtedly, it will ruffle some feathers; those who focus on the typical dichotomy will feel uncomfortable with McMahon's insistence that equality cannot be achieved in every respect, nor should it. Others may find it unnerving that equality, rather than being an Enlightenment realization, has been a far older creation. The evolution of the idea though does not equate into the need for it to be dismissed.
McMahon makes it clear that equality is context dependent, as much other philosophical ideas. Early civilizations saw equality through their own lenses as did Europe in the Middle Ages. Jefferson's ideas, while his rhetorical flourish was unique, were not an awakening.

Again, McMahon spends time looking at the limits of equality, and where humanity has tried to make the case that fairness is not equality, and sometimes inequality may be better. To aspire to equality, a sense, rejects the uniqueness and individuality of fellow citizens and social groups. This book is a powerful interpretation of a tightly-held idea