A new history of humanity
For generations, we have believed that our ancestors were either simple, free and equal, or brutal and warlike.
We learn that we were able to create civilization only by sacrificing our primitive freedom or suppressing our basic instincts.

David Graeber and David Wengrow explain how theories of this kind first appeared in the 18th century as a reaction to the criticism of European society by indigenous peoples and why they are wrong.
This book overturns the way we see human history, the origins of agriculture, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and culture itself.
The authors, based on pioneering research in archaeology and anthropology, demonstrate that history can suddenly become much more interesting if we see what it really says.
If people did not spend 95% of their evolutionary past in small groups of hunter-gatherers, then what were they doing all that time? If agriculture and cities did not throw us into hierarchy and domination, then what did they mean?

The answers are often unexpected and show that the course of human history may not be set in stone, but may be filled with more entertaining possibilities than we tend to imagine.
The dawn of everything radically changes our perception of human history and offers a way to imagine new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society.
A monumental work, the result of scientific curiosity, moral vision, and faith in the power of direct action.