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jcoker10's review
4.0
Fascinating and challenging, although perhaps a bit long and a bit underdeveloped in the middle—I definitely missed the forest for the trees along the way, although the final chapter helped a lot. Really awesome stuff, both depressing and vaguely hopeful about what a future society could look like.
valetparkering's review against another edition
4.0
As Always Graeber is exhaustive in his analysis. I always appreciate the forced shift in perspective that make you question if our society really needs to be structured in the way it is. I appreciate the myth-breaking
wazbar's review
informative
5.0
The stated goal of this book is to use new developments in archeology, anthropology and history to challenge received narratives about historical progress, specifically its inevitability and the foreshortened horizons of neoliberalism.
I'm not an expert in any of the specialties the authors of this book use for their evidence; there were places where I would have liked to see them be more explicit about supporting the claims they were making. However, even if I didn't find merit in their conclusions (and I generally do), there was simply so much history and prehistory I had not heard of or contextualized in this book that it was mind-opening to me. Would definitely recommend.
I'm not an expert in any of the specialties the authors of this book use for their evidence; there were places where I would have liked to see them be more explicit about supporting the claims they were making. However, even if I didn't find merit in their conclusions (and I generally do), there was simply so much history and prehistory I had not heard of or contextualized in this book that it was mind-opening to me. Would definitely recommend.