Anfänge

Fascinating, provocative, groundbreaking. A book that will spark discussions in the coming years. A significant work of immense intellectual breadth, curious, visionary, and a plea for the power of direct action. David Graeber, the most prominent anthropologist of our time, and David Wengrow, one of the leading archaeologists, unfold in their grand history of humanity how the beginnings of our civilization can be rethought and connected to the future of humankind. They revise our previous understanding of humanity and tell the history of humankind like it has never been told before. Over millennia, long before the Enlightenment, every conceivable form of social organization was invented, and the pursuit of freedom, knowledge, and happiness was underway. Graeber and Wengrow demonstrate how profoundly the indigenous perspective has influenced Western thought and how crucial its reclamation is. Vividly and convincingly, they encourage us to advocate more boldly and decisively for a different future for humanity and to change it through our actions. David Graeber was the most significant cultural anthropologist of his generation, the key thinker of the Occupy movement, and a world-renowned intellectual. He lived his ideas of social justice and liberation, gave hope to the oppressed, and inspired countless others to follow in his footsteps. On September 2, 2020, David Graeber unexpectedly passed away at the age of 59 in Venice; three weeks prior, he and David Wengrow had completed "The Dawn: A New History of Humanity." More than ten years earlier, both authors had begun their work on this magnum opus outside of their academic commitments: an anthropologist and an archaeologist revive the great dialogue about human history with the existing source material today. This masterpiece is the legacy of David Graeber. A fascinating work.