Extremely readable re-framing of human pre-history. The goal that the Davids set out for Dawn of Everything is less to create a new narrative of human history, and more to propose a new lens through which to consider pre-history, early history, archaeology, & anthropology. The main points are mostly covered in the first and last chapters, but in between are lots of interesting examples & fun asides. One of the big revelations for me was the ancient prehistoric cities in Ukraine. Also, I’d never before heard about mass graves being evidence for ancient state formation  (makes me think of a line in The Stand about the endpoint of rationalism being the mass grave; Graeber & Wengrow would seem to suggest that it’s actually the other way around) .  The tone is both conversational & reminiscent of educational miniseries (if the narrator also loved anthropology drama & told you just what he thought of others in the field), which makes me want to watch the Carl Sagan Cosmos. Reading this also perversely makes me want to play Civilization, which is fun, but based on both the faulty stages of development model of civilization, & a settler-colonialist world view, which form the exact framework for understanding human society that Dawn of Everything is trying to break out of (Not a Nation of Immigrants also gave me a similar feeling). Many of the anthropological examples reminded me of reading some Ursula K LeGuin stories (especially the Left Hand of Darkness’s discussions of kingship & authority, & Always Coming Home’s depiction of an anti-hierarchical society), to the point that I wondered if the Davids & LeGuin were looking at some of the same anthropological works. The endnotes are very worth reading, to the point that they can probably just be read on their own, if you feel like you don’t have time for such a long book (although Dawn of Everything is a quick read for its length). While not as life-changing as Graeber’s Debt: the First 5000 Years is, I highly recommend Dawn of Everything. I’d really like to read some detailed reviews of it, especially from an anthropological perspective.