The Dawn of Everything
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Description
FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022
'Pacey and potentially revolutionary' Sunday Times
'Iconoclastic and irreverent ... an exhilarating read' The Guardian
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a reaction to indigenous critiques of European society, and why they are wrong. In doing so, they overturn our view of human history, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery and civilization itself.
Drawing on path-breaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we begin to see what's really there. If humans did not spend 95 per cent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful possibilities than we tend to assume.
The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision and faith in the power of direct action.
'This is not a book. This is an intellectual feast' Nassim Nicholas Taleb
'The most profound and exciting book I've read in thirty years' Robin D. G. Kelley
Book Information
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Ein wirkliches erstaunliches Buch. Hat mich häufig wirklich sehr beeindruckt und mit tiefgründigen Erkenntnissen konfrontiert, gleichzeitig war es an vielen Stellen aus meiner Sicht doch sehr zäh, verkopft und unnötig komplex. Während der Lektüre bin ich oft auch einfach an die Grenze meiner intellektuellen Fähigkeiten gestoßen, obwohl ich in einem fachähnlichen Bereich studiert habe. Dennoch, das Buch ist eine wichtige Grundlage für den kritischen Geist, der sich abseits von überholten Vorstellungen und Denktraditionen mit der Geschichte der Menschheit auseinandersetzt.
Description
FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022
'Pacey and potentially revolutionary' Sunday Times
'Iconoclastic and irreverent ... an exhilarating read' The Guardian
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a reaction to indigenous critiques of European society, and why they are wrong. In doing so, they overturn our view of human history, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery and civilization itself.
Drawing on path-breaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we begin to see what's really there. If humans did not spend 95 per cent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful possibilities than we tend to assume.
The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision and faith in the power of direct action.
'This is not a book. This is an intellectual feast' Nassim Nicholas Taleb
'The most profound and exciting book I've read in thirty years' Robin D. G. Kelley
Book Information
Posts
Ein wirkliches erstaunliches Buch. Hat mich häufig wirklich sehr beeindruckt und mit tiefgründigen Erkenntnissen konfrontiert, gleichzeitig war es an vielen Stellen aus meiner Sicht doch sehr zäh, verkopft und unnötig komplex. Während der Lektüre bin ich oft auch einfach an die Grenze meiner intellektuellen Fähigkeiten gestoßen, obwohl ich in einem fachähnlichen Bereich studiert habe. Dennoch, das Buch ist eine wichtige Grundlage für den kritischen Geist, der sich abseits von überholten Vorstellungen und Denktraditionen mit der Geschichte der Menschheit auseinandersetzt.