The Dawn of Everything
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Renowned activist and public intellectual David Graeber teams up with professor of comparative archaeology David Wengrow to deliver a trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution--from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state," political violence, and social inequality--and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike--either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could only be achieved by sacrificing those original freedoms, or alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. Graeber and Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, 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 learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what's really there. If humans did not spend 95% 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? What was really happening during the periods that we usually describe as the emergence of "the state"? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful 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 a faith in the power of direct action.
- In Stock Out of Stock
- Signal
- 9780771049828
- October 19, 2021
- Stock Photo
- 704
- L 23.7cm x W 16.1cm x H 5.2cm
Book Condition Notes
New: A brand-new, unused, unread copy in perfect condition.
Like New: A copy that looks unread and in perfect condition. Dust jacket is intact, with no nicks or tears. The spine has no signs of creasing. Pages are clean and are do not have any notes or folds of any kind. May have a remainder mark. (usually black or red in colour and is usually a dot or line on the bottom of the book on the page edges).
Very Good: A copy that has been read but is in great condition. May have slight cosmetic defects such as marks, wears, cuts, bends and crushes on the cover, pages, spine and dust jacket if applicable. Pages and dust cover (if applicable) are intact and do not have any notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. May have a remainder mark (usually black or red in colour and is usually a dot or line on the bottom of the book on the page edges).
Good: A copy that has been read but in clean condition. The spine, cover, pages and dust jacket (if applicable) may show signs of wear such as marks, wears, cuts, bends and crushes. Pages and dust cover (if applicable) are intact and do not have any notes or highlighting. May have a remainder mark (usually black or red in colour and is usually a dot or line on the bottom of the book on the page edges).
Acceptable: All pages are intact; the cover is intact. The spine, cover, pages and dust jacket (if applicable) may show signs of considerable wear such as marks, wears, cuts, bends and crushes. Pages can include limited notes in pen or in highlighter, but the notes do not obscure the text. May have a remainder mark (usually black or red in colour and is usually a dot or line on the bottom of the book on the page edges).