A constructive critique of the Dawn of Everything that takes its arguments even further by looking deeper at indigenous critiques of European conceptions of gender and marriage.

Another fascinating critique of the Dawn of Everything that asks what if it included non-humans in its critique as many indigenous cultures around the world would have done.

A deep dive into David Graeber’s biography and the genesis of the Dawn of Everything. In NY Mag

Image: David Graeber, summer 1977

“[In the book] Readers are invited to weigh starkly unfamiliar societal arrangements against our own, and to feel the sting.” - Yes! Magazine

Illustration by Frances Murphy

A touching and unique review, reflecting on Human Nature, contemporary bias, bureaucracy, what David Graeber represented and more.

Towards a new understanding of Ancient Rome with Christopher Smith, Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews

A review connecting the book and abolitionist movements.

“Black experience provides the raw material for constructing this other world” In Black Perspectives

Image: Mural, Brownsville Houses, 284 Sutter Ave., Brooklyn, NY, 2013 (Courtesy of the Library of Congress)

“Many books can be defined as a must-read. The Dawn of Everything goes beyond that and will reshape how we identify” - Steve Rushton at Occupy News

An in-depth review that is both very moving and also gets right to the heart of the matter about what this book is truly about. In The Atlantic

Illustration by Rodrigo Corral. Sources: Hugh Sitton / Getty; Been There YB / Shutterstock

Detailed wide-ranging review that appreciates both the content and intent of the book. It also refutes one of the negative claims made by The Nation review by fully reading the source material. In Boston Review

Image: A map of Tlaxcala, an indigenous city-state of pre-Columbian Mexico ruled by council instead of by kings. (Wikimedia)

Another deep dive into the contents and arguments of the book. Worth a read. In The New Yorker

A review by Professor of Anthropology James H. McDonald. In New York Journal of Books

An exchange between Kwame Anthony Appiah and David Wengrow. In The New York Review of Books

“Inspired by the rediscovery of an unknown past, can humanity imagine a future that’s more worthy of itself? Read this extraordinary book and make up your own mind.” A brief review in The Hindu.

“The Dawn of Everything is a rabble-rouser - a great book that will stimulate discussions, change minds, and drive new lines of research.” - Science

“Book of the Day” review emphasizing the authors’ thorough myth-busting in the book. In The Guardian

Image: Rex/Shutterstock

“If the Wendat can manage without police, then so can we. And if people in the past could choose more egalitarian social structures, why shouldn’t we be able to do that as well? The fact that there was no one beginning of humanity means there is no one endpoint. The dawn of everything is always now.” - NBC News

Image: A herdsman stands with cattle brought for inspection as seen on a fragment of a wall painting from the tomb of Nebamun in Thebes, Egypt, c.1350 B.C. CM Dixon/Print Collector / Getty Images

A thoughtful analysis of the book that uses the The Guardian review as its starting point. The review emphasizes the experimentation, imagination, and playfulness of the book itself and the societies throughout history that the book examines. It then contrasts that with how those same traits are ostensibly celebrated in our society by the same people who actively work to constrain and silo them. In Fair Observer

Image: Nataliia Yankovets / Shutterstock

“The more we learn about the many paths our ancestors have taken, the more possible futures open up. “The Dawn of Everything” begins as a sharp rejoinder to sloppy cultural analysis and ends as a paean to freedoms that most of us never realized were available. Knowing that there were other ways to live, Graeber and Wengrow conclude, allows us to rethink what we might yet become.” - The Washington Post

Image: A portion of Indian Mounds Regional Park in St. Paul, Minn. (Carol M. Highsmith/ Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

A broad overview of the book that places it at the same caliber as that of works by Galileo and Darwin. In Tribune Magazine

Earning a rank of 10 in Art Review’s Power 100 Rankings for 2021, they claim: “No recent book is gaining faster traction in the artworld right now.”

“Social evolution, from Ice Age hunter-gatherer networks to ancient Egypt’s pyramid-building dynasties and beyond, gets reinterpreted in a new book as a series of flexible systems that didn’t inevitably produce rampant inequality.” - Science News

Image: Osama Elsayed/Unsplash

A review in Spanish by Argentine Anthropologist Julieta Gaztañaga.

“What passes for civilization today is frequently a system of dominance and deprivation for most people, and one that would have repelled many of our ancestors.” In Institute for New Economic Thinking

“Contradicting the famous capitalistic slogan ‘There is no alternative’, archaeology proves that yes, indeed there were—and there are.” In Ancillary Review of Books

“To the extent that the book is difficult, it is the difficulty that is inseparable from richness. Sentence by sentence, it is clear and forceful and funny, memorable in the manner of a lecture by the kind of professor whose students know they are lucky.” This review also dives into the theological and moral implications of the book. In Commonweal Magazine

Image: Ancient carving of a standing figure from Göbekli Tepe (Robert Landau/Alamy Stock Photo)

A bullet point style review.

Illustration: Rae Cook/Axios

A positive review that appreciates this aspect of the book: “Critics might suggest The Dawn of Everything is all over the place. But that is the point. History is all over the place. “ By Bella Caledonia

Emphasizing the empirical evidence that the book is based on… and the lack of evidence in books by Noah Harari, Steven Pinker, and Jared Diamond. In The Times

Image: cave paintings in South Africa ALAMY

Review by an anthropologist and director of Urban Studies program, who has written about “early cities that lacked top-down governance structures” and “new imaginaries: alternative cognitive images of the city to come.” In Planetizen

Image: Teotihuacán with the modern city of San Juan Teotihuacán in the background. | Gianfranco Vivi / Shutterstock

“…the authors make their key point irrefutably. We’ve walked away from bad societies for tens of thousands of years, or just said no, and then built better societies after long debate. We can do it again.” - Author Crawford Kilian in The Tyee

Image: Wikimedia.

Excerpt: David Wengrow spent ten years working with Graeber on this book. They clearly had too much fun. The research is, as I hope I’ve transmitted, phenomenal. I have not read any of his other books (mostly on archaeology), but this book is so well done, he is now on my list going forward. In The Straight Dope

A review that talks a lot about other people’s opinions than the actual contents of the book. In The New York Times

Image: Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images

Is it an anarchist history? The term “anarchism” came into common use for a political philosophy in the 19th century. This book goes much farther back. Is it anachronistic to call pre-colonial Tlaxcala anarchist? Maybe modern anarchists are should be called “tlaxcalists”? Or maybe “anarchism” is merely a retronym for what was once commonplace? In The Nation

Illustration by Tim Robinson.

In which the reviewer confuses a critique of deterministic approaches to history with an appreciation for certain freedoms that have existing in history, then laments on how Thomas Hobbes is shortchanged in the book, and then finally implies that the authors somehow simultaneous espouse anarchist and neoliberal views. An impressive feat by the authors if true considering those are two diametrically opposed philosophies. In The New Statesman

Image: Illustration by Golden Cosmos