The Dawn of Everything
A New History of Humanity
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The Dawn of Everything
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Narrated by:
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Malk Williams
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilisation, 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 18th century as a reaction to Indigenous critiques of European society and why they are wrong. In doing so, they overturn our view of human history, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery and civilisation itself.
Drawing on path-breaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we begin to see what's really there. If humans did not spend 95 per cent 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 organisation did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected and suggest that the course of history may be less set in stone and more full of playful possibilities than we tend to assume.
The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path towards imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organising society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision and faith in the power of direct action.
©2021 David Graeber, David Wengrow (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"Pacey and potentially revolutionary." (Sunday Times)
"Iconoclastic and irreverent...an exhilarating read." (Guardian)
"Boldly ambitious, entertaining and thought-provoking." (Observer)
What listeners say about The Dawn of Everything
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Olly Buxton
- 11-11-21
not the great revolution I was expecting
David Graeber was a genuinely provocative and original thinker, a beautiful writer, and his “Debt: The First 5000 years” is a really thought-provoking book. Perhaps I have been softened up having read works by James C Scott, Jane Jacobs, Barbara Tuchman, Jeremy Lent and others, but this wasn't the epic gobsmacker it was billed as. It is interesting, but not gripping, and the promised takedowns of Yuval Harari and Steven Pinker weren't quite as eviscerating as I was hoping.
Graeber’s post structuralist approach means he can't king-hit conventional wisdom anything like as hard as he would clearly like to - the best he can do is say “this is coloured and biased by X and y perspectives, and here's an alternative perspective ...” but he would have too concede that his perspective, too, is necessarily biased and coloured, drawing just as selectively and extrapolating just as willfully from the record.
Fairly well read but the narrator's tone, whether by accident or design, errs on the side of sounding snide, which doesn't help the presentation.
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18 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 08-09-23
Eye opening even to the layman
Imaginative, playful, thought provoking, and rigorous. One of the best books I’ve read ever! Rest in peace David Graeber.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-10-23
Well worth reading
A very interesting historical perspective. A real eye-opener on the evolution and origin of political structures and social evolution, and the lack of inevitability of the ones we see today
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- AG
- 27-08-24
Rethink everything you think you know about early human societies.
Was the majority of archeology and anthropology in the 19th and early 20c. done by weird reactionaries, or by people with a religious agenda, conditioned by early modern conceptions of the world? Turns out yes.
Did that distort the view of early societies and provide a justification for the status quo and imperialism? Yes.
Was the origin of the modern critique of society also occasioned by the discovery of massive swathes of people in the Americas who didn't really fit the normal story? Yes.
Were indigenous intellectuals laughing at this situation? Also yes.
Should you read this book if you're interested in politics and history in any sense? Yes.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Martin G.
- 14-08-24
Enjoyable, properly researched and radical
As with Debt, Graeber makes a radical message seem common sense by asking the right questions
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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- iampago
- 21-06-22
The narrator makes this an impossible listen
The content is fascinating but the narrator’s tone and pace makes it very difficult listening. He reads with a glaring bias in his voice that, having read Graeber’s other works, I refuse to believe was what the writers were going for. The narration is loud, practically shouting at times, and with a tone I can only describe as quite snide. It was so off-putting that I’ve ended up just buying the paperback to read. A real shame - the production is completely off on this.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 09-02-22
A captivating part of history nobody talks about
I was captivated by the subject. Definitely inspiring book. It is my first audio book that makes me consider buying a hard copy.
I can understand why other reviewers complain about the tone of the narrator, but it wasn't detracting from the experience for me.
It is very sad that this is the last book from David Graeber.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-02-23
Essential listening
One of the most important listens of our era. Blows away your misconceptions and reveals a wealth of possibilities for the future.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Meredith Silburn
- 05-07-23
Amazing scope and synthesis
An overview of human development and of the human condition. Readdressing the question: Why do we live as we do? with modern evidence.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-04-22
A very liberating read
As a species we are so much more than the sum of what we are taught to believe.
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