It has often been claimed that "monsters"--supernatural creatures with bodies composed from multiple species--play a significant part in the thought and imagery of all people from all times. The Origins of Monsters advances an alternative view. Composite figurations are intriguingly rare and isolated in the art of the prehistoric era. Instead it was with the rise of cities, elites, and cosmopolitan trade networks that "monsters" became widespread features of visual production in t...

Wie der Alte Orient dem Westen die Zukunft weist.Unsere heutige Welt hat ihren Ursprung im Alten Orient und in Ägypten. David Wengrow zeigt anschaulich, wie die Zukunft des Westens untrennbar mit der ungeheuren Dynamik der alten Zivilisationen verbunden ist, deren Erbe wir angetreten haben. Die Lehren aus diesem Zivilisationsprozess werden über das künftige Schicksal des Westens entscheiden.Der Drang nach Austausch, Vernetzung und Expansion kennzeichnet uns...

Comparing early phases of urban development in four regions – the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, China, and Mesoamerica – this essay offers a global perspective on the origins of civic life. While we may never be able to reconstruct the unwritten constitutions of these earliest cities, or the reforms undergone in their first centuries, we can hardly doubt that these existed. Consideration of archaeological and written evidence from across the four areas suggests in every case, that significant...

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER AND BBC HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEARFINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022'Pacey and potentially revolutionary' Sunday Times'Iconoclastic and irreverent ... an exhilarating read' The GuardianFor generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - eithe...

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike—either free and equal innocen...

Brought to you by Penguin.For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a reaction to indigenous critiques of European society, and why they are wro...

"An all-encompassing treatise on modern civilization, offering bold revisions to canonical understandings in sociology, anthropology, archaeology and political philosophy that led to where we are today." - The New York TimesA dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality—and rev...

Durante generaciones hemos visto a nuestros antepasados más remotos como seres primitivos, ingenuos y violentos. Se nos ha dicho que solo era posible alcanzar la civilización sacrificando libertades o domesticando nuestros instintos. En este ensayo, los reconocidos antropólogos David Graeber y David Wengrow demuestran que estas concepciones, que surgieron en el siglo xviii, fueron una reacción conservadora de la sociedad europea ante las críticas de los in...

Neste clássico instantâneo e best-seller internacional, David Graeber e David Wengrow propõem uma nova versão de nossa história — do desenvolvimento da agricultura e das cidades às origens do Estado, da democracia e da desigualdade.Durante séculos, nossos ancestrais foram considerados primitivos e infantis, sendo divididos em duas categorias: iguais, livres e inocentes ou guerreiros e brutais. Com base no pensamento de Jean-Jacques Rousseau e de Thomas Hobbes, a id...

Neste clássico instantâneo e best-seller internacional, David Graeber e David Wengrow propõem uma nova versão de nossa história — do desenvolvimento da agricultura e das cidades às origens do Estado, da democracia e da desigualdade.Durante séculos, nossos ancestrais foram considerados primitivos e infantis, sendo divididos em duas categorias: iguais, livres e inocentes ou guerreiros e brutais. Com base no pensamento de Jean-Jacques Rousseau e de Thomas Hobbes, a id...

Cognition Switch: An Artefact for the Transmission of New IdeasIssue #2: January 2019Featuring Ideas by:Michael Shermer, Peter Staudenmaier, Sabine Hossenfelder, Kate Raworth, Benjamin G Martin, Noah Charney, David Wengrow, Kimberley Brownlee, Tali Sharot, Robert Simpson, Thea Bechshoft, Martin Rees, Jon Butterworth, Bill Nye, Huw Price, and Henry Cowles

David Graebers och David Wengrows storverk The Dawn of Everything kommer på svenska hösten 2022 med titeln Början på allt – En ny historia om mänskligheten. Det är en bok som i grunden förändrar vår förståelse för människans historia och samtidigt presenterar visionära idéer om frihet och framtidens samhällen.I generationer har vi betraktat människans avlägsna förfäder som barnsliga eller primitiva. Vi ser dem antingen som fria, jämlika och oskuldsfulla primater, eller som tjuvakti...