Graeber, Wengrow and the radical freedom to change. Inequality is not the inevitable outcome of civilization. In a nutshell, this is the thesis presented by David Graeber and David Wengrow in their new book, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. The central theme of the book is that the accepted story of the rise of mankind and civilization, a linear story of man’s progress from primitivism to modern society, is not accurate and is just that, a grand narrative, perhaps the grandest of all. The strength of the evidence presented will be hotly debated for years to come, as technology progresses, and further light is shed on the early evolution of our social interactions and political formations. But the importance of their thesis is undeniable: for it highlights the dangers of elevating a narrative to objective truth, and opens wide the possibility that we can … [Read more...]