An activist and public intellectual teams up with a professor of comparative archaeology to deliver an 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.
Somewhere in the back of your mind, you have an idea of how the world got to where it is today. In a big picture sense. Most likely, that idea is rooted in some Social Studies classes you had to take as a kid and have not actively thought about in decades. First, there was something about the Fertile Crescent. Then, there was something about the Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans. Then, the Middle Ages happened. Then, there was the Age of Exploration and the Enlightenment, and American history started not long after and consisted largely of European culture spreading across the continent.
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graber and David Wengrow is here to make you rethink that idea. Which is not to say that the recorded events didn’t happen but to say that there are nuances that were glided over for schoolchildren that continue to be ignored by people not actively studying specific areas. They dive into how the way we tell the story of early humanity has evolved and how those stories reflect and shape our views of humanity as a whole. They talk extensively about the structures of Indigenous American societies and how the democratic elements of those societies spurred political ideas in the European Enlightenment. They give detailed descriptions of ancient archaeological sites and discuss what they could mean for our understanding of early humanity, including the most detailed discussion of Poverty Point in northern Louisiana I have ever come across.
It certainly isn’t light reading. There are over 80 pages of footnotes alone. It is, however, written in a very accessible style that doesn’t assume you have much more background than at least vaguely remembering those Social Studies classes I mentioned earlier. I recommend listening to the audiobook while something keeps your hands busy if the nearly 700-page length intimidates you. If it does not, then you also get a handful of maps and diagrams sprinkled in with the text to help you visualize some of the geography. Overall, this is a great choice for history buffs who want to get a birds-eye view on a subject that so often focuses on the more fine-grain details of a certain time and place.
- Catherine, Cataloging Associate