This fascinating book reexamines the foundational understanding we’ve largely absorbed about the advent of sedentary agriculture and the earliest states (think ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, etc.). As most history explains it, if it explains it at all, early humans discovered agriculture and immediately and joyfully settled down, happily tilling their fields and thanking their lucky stars they wouldn’t have to do anymore wandering or wearisome hunting /gathering. Naturally enough this lead to more people and inevitably an organizational state arose to organize people, construct irrigation works, and basically begin civilization as we know it.

The reality however, may be far more interesting and less cut and dry. Archeological evidence suggests that the road from agriculture to permanent sedentism and then to political states was a long and winding one, full of reversions and false starts, and hardly the miraculous, overall good it’s been made out to be. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that early farmers had a vastly inferior quality of life when compared to their still hunter / gathering counterparts, poorer diet, longer, harder, work hours, epidemic disease and onerous taxes and conscription all start to make the older and more stable subsistence strategies seem much more appealing. Agriculture, and sedentary life for all its benefits had some serious downsides and was not, as it has been portrayed, a miraculous and wholly beneficial innovation that early humans couldn’t wait to take part in.

This book was deeply interesting and combined copious scholarship and footnotes with an extremely accessible and engaging writing style. It’s gotten me interested even more in the topic of early states and the rise of agriculture and I’d recommend it as a great starting point for anyone interested in the subject.