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laurelbard 's review for:
The Dawn of Everything
by David Wengrow, David Graeber
It's not every day I meet a book that makes me consider anarchy seriously as a political ideology. As a (formerly?) staunch supporter of the necessity of a large, centralized state and an overarching global system that promotes human health and wellbeing, I failed to consider that there are multiple possible political and economic arrangements that result in good outcomes. I also failed to consider that there is something to be said for multiple different political and economic systems coexisting, and the freedom of people to move between them as they choose.
What's funny is, when I recommend this book to people I say that it's a comprehensive review of archeological and ethnographic literature from the past century that has complicated our ideas of the "progression" of human history. And it is that. It's also a very hefty work of social theory that relies on the examples presented in its literature review to make arguments about how societies should be structured, and the power that people have to decide how their societies are constructed. Very compelling (long) piece of work. I'm sure there will be debates about it for ages to come in academic circles, but I hope that it reaches the layperson just as thoroughly as "Guns, Germs, and Steel", or "Sapiens". ("Sapiens" particularly is a nasty piece of work and I'm glad that Graber and Wengrow took ample opportunity to challenge it. One of these stars is really just for bashing "Sapiens", because I'm a little petty.)
I absorbed this as an audiobook. I think it would be difficult to tackle as a physical volume -- however, having read it once on audiobook, I will probably buy a physical copy and revisit + annotate key sections.
Rest in peace David Graeber. May someone else take up your mantle, and soon.
What's funny is, when I recommend this book to people I say that it's a comprehensive review of archeological and ethnographic literature from the past century that has complicated our ideas of the "progression" of human history. And it is that. It's also a very hefty work of social theory that relies on the examples presented in its literature review to make arguments about how societies should be structured, and the power that people have to decide how their societies are constructed. Very compelling (long) piece of work. I'm sure there will be debates about it for ages to come in academic circles, but I hope that it reaches the layperson just as thoroughly as "Guns, Germs, and Steel", or "Sapiens". ("Sapiens" particularly is a nasty piece of work and I'm glad that Graber and Wengrow took ample opportunity to challenge it. One of these stars is really just for bashing "Sapiens", because I'm a little petty.)
I absorbed this as an audiobook. I think it would be difficult to tackle as a physical volume -- however, having read it once on audiobook, I will probably buy a physical copy and revisit + annotate key sections.
Rest in peace David Graeber. May someone else take up your mantle, and soon.