Session 2: The Revolution that Never Happened?
Recommended reading: The Dawn of Everything, Chapters 3-7.
Some 10,000 years ago, the first ‘Agricultural Revolution’ decisively and irreversibly changed the trajectory of humankind forever. Or did it? Graeber & Wengrow instead present an account of a partial and contingent process whereby farming practices were taken up and rejected in different parts of the world over the course of thousands of years. In this session, we will examine the evidence they leverage and its implications for how we understand history.
About the Dawn of Everything Book Club Series
How did our distant ancestors live? And what can this tell us about our contemporary world? Drawing on wide-ranging research in archaeology and anthropology, The Dawn of Everything is an ambitious attempt to overturn the conventional narrative about human history, including the origins of farming, property, cities, and democracy, and replace it with a more accurate, interesting, and unpredictable story.
This event series will feature experts from across the UW-Madison campus providing their assessment of the book and how it might change the way we think about and teach the deep past as well as what it tells us about the present. Be sure to register today to take part in this exciting event.
