Review: ‘The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity’
William Deresiewicz reviews [[The Dawn of Everything]] by [[David Graeber]] and [[David Wengrow]], a sweeping revision of the standard narrative of human social history that argues against linear, deterministic accounts tying agriculture to hierarchy and states. Drawing on archaeology and Indigenous intellectual traditions, the book highlights diverse social experiments—from Ice-Age burials and sites like [[Göbekli Tepe]] and [[Poverty Point]] to urban egalitarianism at [[Teotihuacan]] and early Ukrainian towns like [[Taljanky]]—to show hunter-gatherers and early farmers exercised political choices. The authors reject inevitability of the modern state and celebrate a persistent “ecology of freedom,” asking whether civilizations’ gains justify losses of mobility, dissent, and self-determination. Deresiewicz finds the book provocative, messy, inspiring, and a bittersweet final gift after [[Graeber]]’s death. He praises their erudition and vast bibliography while noting unresolved questions about applying ancient variability to present politics.