David Graeber and David Wengrow’s recent book, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, was the first title we read in my “Obsidian Book Club” which has been meeting regularly for the past couple of years (we’re currently on our 20th iteration and have read about two dozen books, because sometimes we read a couple at once). I was very impressed with the ideas the book contained, although I thought it should probably have been edited into a couple of separate books (which it might have been, if Graeber had not abruptly died as soon as the manuscript was completed).
This is a video I made on the day of the first Zoom meeting of the book club (December 17th, 2021), describing my reaction to the first two chapters. I’m still very impressed with the story of the indigenous critique, and I have incorporated elements of it into the way I understand and teach the Enlightenment.
In case you’re interested, the video of the first meeting and all the rest are available in the “Book Club” section.
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