“Civilization Doesn’t Kill People, People Kill People” – A Resource List for Criticisms of The Dawn of Everything

Look. My time is precious. If you follow my work, you know my process for “how I decide to read a book” is extensive.

I like a lot of what David Graeber wrote. So, I was excited and skeptical about The Dawn of Everything, when it promised to completely dismantle many ideas that are foundational to rewilding, in terms of the origins of civilization and inequality. I was so disappointed with the lack of research, the lack of citation, the cherry picking of information and data, and mostly the pretentious tone, that I gave up on the book 100 pages in. I began to write a review, but I already wasted a couple of hours reading and don’t have the heart to write out a review… especially since so many have already been done. So instead, below is a list of really great reviews and rebuttals to the absurd claims in this book.

Let me say that there were a few points that they make in the book, but these points are already made by the existing people working and writing in this field. There was nothing new in this regard, only that many of these points haven’t reached the general public yet. While it may be good that some of these points are getting out there, they are doing so clouded in lots of other bullshit.

The Ecologist Magazine
All things being equal

WHAT IS POLITICS Youtube Channel:
10.1 What is an “Egalitarian Society”? David Graeber & David Wengrow’s “The Dawn of Everything”
10.2 The Dawn of Everything: How Graeber & Wengrow’s book sets us up to fail at politics
10.3 The Ingredients of Hierarchy: Graeber & Wengrow’s Dawn of Everything, Chapter 3
10.4 What Causes Seasonal Political Structures? Graeber & Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything Ch. 3

Author Chris Knight
Wrong About (Almost) Everything