Everything that you thought about pre-literate societies is WRONG.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dawn_of_Everything
The authors open the book by suggesting that current popular views on the progress of western civilization, as presented by Francis Fukuyama, Jared Diamond, Yuval Noah Harari, Charles C. Mann, Steven Pinker, and Ian Morris, are not supported by anthropological or archaeological evidence, but owe more to philosophical dogmas inherited unthinkingly from the Age of Enlightenment. The authors refute the Hobbesian and Rousseauian view on the origin of the social contract, stating that there is no single original form of human society. Moreover, they argue that the transition from foraging to agriculture was not a civilization trap that laid the ground for social inequality, and that throughout history, large-scale societies have often developed in the absence of ruling elites and top-down systems of management.

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity is a 2021 non-fiction book written by anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow.

Core Concepts

• Challenging Linear History: The book questions the traditional story that human society moves in a straight line from small, equal hunter-gatherer bands to complex, unequal states.
• Indigenous Critique: The authors argue that modern ideas of freedom and equality were heavily shaped by critiques of European society from Indigenous American intellectuals (such as Kandiaronk of the Wendat) in the 18th century.
• Flexibility of Early Societies: Archaeological and anthropological evidence shows that early humans built large, diverse, and often decentralized cities and social systems without losing their basic freedoms.
• Seasonal Social Structures: Many ancient groups intentionally shifted their political and social organizations depending on the season, moving between hierarchical and egalitarian modes.

Book Details

• Publication Date: October 19, 2021 (Allen Lane / Penguin Books)
• Length: 704 pages (American edition)
• Key Recognition: Finalist for the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Writing and winner of the J.I. Staley Prize in 2025.