Welcome to Litsy!

A harrowing feat of literature, but a bit long and dry for my tastes, even for an audio. I am sure some of the knowledge from this book stuck, but also looked forward to it ending after more than 24 hours of listening. Like some other long anthropology works, seems to rehash the same themes repeatedly.

The nonfiction of the meaty kind

Not about dumbed down, black-and-white, mythologized truths.

Ancient humans are far more complex, it says. Our ideas about history are modern mythologies, gross simplifications, or outright lies. Thinking that millions of us—over a period of millenniums—could fit neatly into one box of a cohesive story is ridiculous.

Our society is neither a pinnacle of human achievement, nor a dead end.

Makes you think

4/5

(this book is a whole lot prettier without the ugly orange dust jacket)
Probably the best pop history I've read! Not at all dense and the only reason it took me so long was sheer physical heft - it's a brick of 600+ pages with the references included (525 without) and doesn't fit in my bag. Quick summary: the "rise of civilisation" narrative is wrong, there's no one path, and also we aren't doomed to hierarchy. Big fan.

Am I making progress? Sure. Is it fast progress? Not even a little bit, I hit page 300 today. Is it interesting? Absolutely!

It was gloriously sunny Friday and Saturday, enough so that I could read and drink coffee outside.

The book? Long as hell, but very interesting. I'm about halfway through.

Utterly fascinating! A thorough examination of human history that aims to disprove many of the assumptions and conclusions made of early civilizations. All-encompassing and scientific, yet accessible. However, this is the audiobook “that never ever ends, it just goes on and on my friends!!!” At 24 hours, I was ready for a change. In fact I paused a few times to listen to a quick fiction titles just to palate cleanse. 😬

Coffee shop was out of my usual and I had to have a hazelnut latte, which wasn't terrible. But they had pain au chocolate so it was ok.
I'm really enjoying how this book is dismantling traditional narratives of pre-history so far, and it's only improving.

Fantastic book! An absolutely wonderful work that challenges our notions about how and why society develops. Nothing in the development of our society was inevitable or is unchangeable. Masses of new information with unparalleled analysis. Brilliant!

This is a interesting book that manages to convey new ideas about ancient civilizations in way that‘s not going to put you to sleep.

I chose the 24 hour audiobook route for this one, but you need to check in with the online pdf version for maps, visual aids, etc to experience the full punch of this book. It‘s a real mind f#%* of everything you thought you knew about human societies. The authors have given us so much to think about that it‘s almost overwhelming. Be brave and give it a try. You‘ll be thinking about this one for a long time! 🥊

40/150 I wish I had liked this more, but I felt, at times, the authors got lost in their details, rambling and straying from their core subject. When on point, their discussion of the philosophical and historical foundations of human civilization was enlightening. 3 ⭐⭐⭐
13th book for #KickTheSlump @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES
2nd book for #20in4 @Andrew65

1. The Tritonian Ring, The Dawn of Everything and The Glass Hotel
2. I'm just about finished with The Dawn of Everything (704 pages)
3. A Study In Emerald - Neil Gaiman

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

I got 1/4 way in and quit and wrote this snooty review: It's manipulative and I don't want to spend my audiobook time dealing with that. If you like authors who poke holes in obviously unsupported arguments that no one still maintains, and then fill those holes in with their own unsupported ideas, and expressed with self-confidant gusto, this is your book.

This book tackled the origins of inequality through the change from hunter gathering to the development of agriculture, from tribes and bands to city and states, and the development of currency. It covered the start of slavery, and the roles of women, and also religion.

I sampled four audiobooks and decided to go with this 24-hour one next.

"what follows is to put it bluntly, a modern psychologist making it up as he goes along". If you thought I'd like shitting on Rousseau, wait until you see shitting on Steven Pinker

Yes please

Awww yiss

In The Dawn of Everything Davids Graeber and Wengrow have packed the foundations of modern political philosophy with dynamite and lit the fuse. They accomplish this by synthesizing and sharing recent advances in the fields of archaeology and anthropology which show a truly dizzying diversity of sophisticated models of human social organization among indigenous peoples the world over, spanning tens of thousands of years. (Cnt‘d in comments)

Aww yiss. This was sold out everywhere so it took me a hot minute to get it but now I have it!