aaronj21's Reviews (912)

Very nearly five stars, fantastic. I HAD to finish the rest in one sitting at about the halfway point when things really started to ramp up.

This book was, overall, as neat and concise a description of the “Qanon” conspiracy theory / movement as one could hope to find on such a sprawling, contradictory, and dense subject. In its best moments the author manages to write empathetically about people caught up in Qanon while also highlighting how Q is destructive and harmful to its adherents and everyone else. Unfortunately, some stilted writing and repetitive elements and phrases, hold this book back. However, as an introduction to this most complex and impactful of conspiracy theories it’s a great resource. This book would be particularly useful to a reader with a loved one who’s fallen down the Qanon rabbit hole.

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.

This book was beautifully and economically written and pulls you in to a realistic and authentic feeling world with a couple well-constructed paragraphs and a few lines of sparkling, believable dialogue. Haunting, tragic, and hopeful all at once, a quick read sure to stick in your mind long afterwards.

A whole generation of older Americans, out of stable work, and with little or nothing to retire on, are taking to the roads, living a nomadic itinerant existence rather than succumb to abject poverty or homelessness. This book is about those Americans and the conditions the caused this phenomenon. About how despite, or perhaps because, this country is the richest in the world, an ever growing number of its people, despite being intelligent, frugal, and hardworking are finding it nearly impossible to live. While the nomads in this book are a fascinating, optimistic sort and make for compelling reading, the conditions underlying their freer new way of life are always just below the surface, threatening to destroy them. It’s inspiring and entertaining to read about Linda May’s “can do” attitude and resourcefulness, until you remember this college educated woman who’s worked hard her whole life should have other options besides tedious seasonal jobs in an Amazon warehouse to see her through her golden years.

This book is both an optimistic love letter to the human spirit as well as a scathing critique of just how cruel and senselessly our economic institutions are structured. Though the nomads themselves might not see it, or acknowledge it, the author is deeply aware of how despite all the benefits of nomadic living, choosing into this life as an alternative to traditional homelessness or worse is hardly a choice.