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Darius Foroux: If you enjoyed Sapiens by Yuval Harari, you’ll love this one. The Dawn of Everything is written by anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow.
In this book, they use common sense and science to debunk many commonly held beliefs about our history. For example, everyone assumes we were always hunter-gatherers until 10,000 years ago when we suddenly started the farming revolution. And that’s when inequality started as well. At least, that’s the idea.
But Graeber and Wengrow explain that history is more complex. It’s not like the oversimplified narratives we see in popular books and media. My key takeaway is that humans are highly complex and unique. It’s impossible to make generalized claims about humans.
What I like most about The Dawn of Everything is how the authors look at the world. They are critical of their peers, but also of themselves. This level of self-awareness is sadly rare.