INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and 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 be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David 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 pathbreaking 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 percent 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? 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. Includes Black-and-White Illustrations

A modern classic of the new agrarianism "Chris Smaje...shows that the choice is clear. Either we have a small farm future, or we face collapse and extinction."—Vandana Shiva "Every young person should read this book."—Richard Heinberg In a groundbreaking debut, farmer and social scientist Chris Smaje argues that organizing society around small-scale farming offers the soundest, sanest and most reasonable response to climate change and other crises of civilisation—and will yield humanity’s best chance at survival. Drawing on a vast range of sources from across a multitude of disciplines, A Small Farm Future analyses the complex forces that make societal change inevitable; explains how low-carbon, locally self-reliant agrarian communities can empower us to successfully confront these changes head on; and explores the pathways for delivering this vision politically. Challenging both conventional wisdom and utopian blueprints, A Small Farm Future offers rigorous original analysis of wicked problems and hidden opportunities in a way that illuminates the path toward functional local economies, effective self-provisioning, agricultural diversity and a shared earth. Perfect for readers of both Wendell Berry and Thomas Piketty, A Small Farm Future is a refreshing, new outlook on a way forward for society—and a vital resource for activists, students, policy makers, and anyone looking to enact change.

A chapter-by-chapter complete summary of David Graeber and David Wengrow's book The Dawn of Everything A fundamentally new perspective of human history, questioning our most basic beliefs about social evolution, from the rise of agriculture and cities to the beginnings of the state, democracy, and inequality, and exposing fresh possibilities for human liberation.

This book is in anyway to replace the original book THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING BY DAVID GRAEBER & DAVID WENGROW, but rather a more precise analysis of the contents of the book. This book touches on aspects of the book that a reader might find valid and well contextualized for a quick read. In this book, you will get the author's analysis of how life used to be in the golden age and the paleolithic era and how that relates to today, in sense of primal decisions and nature habits towards a way of living. The author also touches on where certain behavior come from, the hierarchical organization of the modern politics,policies and societies and how to put this knowledge into practical and analytical decisions in modern times, social evolution and which transpired from agricultural development to city infrastructure, he promoting of democracy, consequences of inequality and the possibilities in the future. This book is a MUST READ for anyone that is fascinated about how the past influences today, the opinions of the authors of the main book and the application of these newly accrued knowledge into real life in current times.

THE BOOK IS ABOUT HUMANITY AND OUR TRAVELS THROUGH TIME This book is a well summarised and detailed version of the book THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING by DAVID GRAEBER AND DAVID WENGROW. In this book, you will get ------a concise idea about analysis to the period of human childhood ------the consequence of liberty and how it influences where the world is today ------analysis of origins and histories of different cultures and how they either persevere or conquer their problem -------modern economy, where we are today and how it re-enforces the consequences of the past -------the full circle of the present and the past THIS WELL-SCRIPTED BOOK IS A MUST-READ FOR ANYONE THAT WANTS TO UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH INFLUENCE PAST HISTORIES IS HAVING IN THE CURRENT WORLD AND THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN BOTH

Now in paperback, the updated and expanded edition: David Graeber’s “fresh . . . fascinating . . . thought-provoking . . . and exceedingly timely” (Financial Times) history of debt Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it.

Explores the idea of democracy, its current state of crisis, and its potential as a tool for change, sharing historical perspectives on the effectiveness of democratic uprisings in various times and cultures.