Reviews tagging 'War'

The Dawn of Everything by David Wengrow, David Graeber

6 reviews

cmcrockford's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Wow. Could not recommend enough. For fans of Graeber's other books and political history in general.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Genocide, and Colonisation

Moderate: Rape, Religious bigotry, Murder, Sexual violence, and Racism

laurareads87's review against another edition

funny informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

"What if we treat people, from the beginning, as imaginative, intelligent, playful creatures who deserve to be understood as such? What if, instead of telling a story about how our species fell from some idyllic state of equality, we ask how we came to be trapped in such tight conceptual shackles that we can no longer even the possibility of reinventing ourselves?" [9]

Absolutely fantastic.  In this wide ranging, ambitious book, "the Davids" pick apart deep seated presumptions underlying much of anthropology and history and demonstrate that not only are these assumptions not aligned with facts, but that they are rooted in ideological commitments that refuse to allow the possibility that ancient ways of organizing societies were the result of deliberation and decision-making.  Dismantling assumptions like 'cities that are complex need hierarchies' and 'social development is determined by technology,' the Davids discuss examples of early societies from all over the world as experimenting with how best to live and organize themselves and ask how it is that unlike our ancestors, many of whom lived in societies that oscillated between different political systems seasonally, many of us can barely even imagine alternate forms of social, political, and economic life.  

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Xenophobia, Sexism, War, Antisemitism, Slavery, Torture, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder

finn_1312's review against another edition

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation and Genocide

Moderate: Slavery and War

Minor: Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Torture, Kidnapping, and Rape

anarchism, archeology, societal organization

ka_cam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

A framework-shifting, intriguing, and ultimately hopeful read! This book goes at warp speed through human history pausing for mile-high analysis and creative wondering on moments and evidence of past humans. I really enjoyed how much agency and space they gave ancient peoples, and found many of their conclusions to be compelling. It made me want to read more about specifics - was definitely broad brush strokes (which destabilized more typical broad brush strokes and got at the root of that thinking, and what systems it serves). Written around the framing or origins of violence and inequality it ultimately did more to show not so much origins as the many options humans have, through time and space, explored to organize our societies. It gave me hope for the future and in a sense hope for the past as well. Recommend! Took me ages though, put it down for long periods.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Genocide, Colonisation, War, Violence, Sexual violence, Racism, Domestic abuse, Torture, and Misogyny

Minor: Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, and Trafficking

fujo_cat's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

Well, this was certainly something. I listened to the audio book, as I'd probably have dropped it otherwise.
It wasn't bad, but after the first initial chapters (which were the most fun and interesting to listen to imo) it gets a bit boring and somewhat repetitive. After 80% completion, I was just glad I was almost finished... Nevertheless, you do learn a lot of cool and interesting stuff!! If you are curious about anthropology and how old tribes and people behave themselves, you should give this a go :) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Death

Minor: War

sohva's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation

Minor: Rape, Suicide, Slavery, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Torture, War, Violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Genocide, and Racism