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hifionapotter's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
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eternallytouchstarved's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
maxschuman's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Definitely well researched and comprehensive. I’m glad I spent time putting my head in this space. But this was tough to really vibe with as an audiobook. Very academic and hard to keep track of points. I think it would’ve resonated more with me if I were reading it on paper, so I could backtrack, reread sentences for comprehension, etc.
kb_208's review
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Graeber is a hell of a writer, RIP. This is the second book I've undertaken from him, and it is a doozy. He tackles a big question that no one has really been able to answer with any type of certainty, "What are the origins of inequality?". He investigates this question in many different ages of prehistory many different areas around the world. My main takeaways from this book are that history is not just a simple evolution sequence where humans developed from savage nomadic hunter/gatherers, to farmers, to living in a large civilization, and then becoming "modern". It is instead far more complicated than that, but historians have often clouded these findings based on their own biases and looking at our world's current civil system the obvious end result. It has often just been easier to stick to this narrative, because it is simple, even when mounting evidence suggests this was not a straight and narrow road. He suggests that there was a lot of social experimentation during prehistory and people were trying out different social systems. Sometimes they would develop small cities and farming communities only to revert back to a more pastoral life after a few centuries. Also there are many cases of obvious rejection of agricultural and city life, due to evidence of hunter/gatherers living near and trading with these bigger civilizations.
Some of the criticism I have seen of this book is that Graeber doesn't say things with much certainty throughout the book. I would say that this is because all this is prehistory and we don't truly know. He is just looking at the evidence that is available and making different hypotheses that often run contrary to popular belief about these subjects.
Some of the criticism I have seen of this book is that Graeber doesn't say things with much certainty throughout the book. I would say that this is because all this is prehistory and we don't truly know. He is just looking at the evidence that is available and making different hypotheses that often run contrary to popular belief about these subjects.
readingatthemuseum's review against another edition
Realised I wasn't in the mood for a sweeping history non-fiction. There are lots of interesting case studies but I was wanting more detail and depth from all of them (which isn't what this book is trying to do).
Might return to it at some point.
Might return to it at some point.