THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER AND BBC HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR

FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022

'Pacey and potentially revolutionary' Sunday Times

'Iconoclastic and irreverent ... an exhilarating read' The Guardian

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a reaction to indigenous critiques of European society, and why they are wrong. In doing so, they overturn our view of human history, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery and civilization itself.

Drawing on path-breaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we begin to see what's really there. If humans did not spend 95 per cent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful possibilities than we tend to assume.

The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision and faith in the power of direct action.

'This is not a book. This is an intellectual feast' Nassim Nicholas Taleb

'The most profound and exciting book I've read in thirty years' Robin D. G. Kelley

'Spectacular and terrifyingly true' Owen Jones
'Thought-provoking and funny' The Times

Up to 40% of us secretly believe our jobs probably aren't necessary. In other words: they are bullshit jobs. This book shows why, and what we can do about it.

In the early twentieth century, people prophesied that technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks and driving flying cars. Instead, something curious happened. Not only have the flying cars not materialised, but average working hours have increased rather than decreased. And now, across the developed world, three-quarters of all jobs are in services, finance or admin: jobs that don't seem to contribute anything to society. In Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber explores how this phenomenon - one more associated with the Soviet Union, but which capitalism was supposed to eliminate - has happened. In doing so, he looks at how, rather than producing anything, work has become an end in itself; the way such work maintains the current broken system of finance capital; and, finally, how we can get out of it.

This book is for anyone whose heart has sunk at the sight of a whiteboard, who believes 'workshops' should only be for making things, or who just suspects that there might be a better way to run our world.

Debt is one of the great subjects of our day, and understanding the way that it not only fuels economic growth, but can also be used as a means of generating profit and exerting control, is central to grasping the way in which our society really works.

David Graeber's contribution to this debate is to apply his anthropologists' training to the understanding of a phenomenon often considered purely from an economic point of view. In this respect, the book can be considered a fine example of the critical thinking skill of problem-solving. Graeber's main aim is to undermine the dominant narrative, which sees debt as the natural – and broadly healthy – outcome of the development of a modern economic system. He marshals evidence that supports alternative possibilities, and suggests that the phenomenon of debt emerged not as a result of the introduction of money, but at precisely the same time.

This in turn allows Graeber to argue against the prevailing notion that economy and state are fundamentally separate entities. Rather, he says, "the two were born together and have always been intertwined" – with debt being a means of enforcing elite and state power. For Graeber, this evaluation of the evidence points to a strong potential solution: there should be more readiness to write off debt, and more public involvement in the debate over debt and its moral implications.

The Democracy Project is an exploration of anti-capitalist dissent and new political ideas from David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years and a leading member of the Occupy movement.

From the earliest meetings for Occupy Wall Street, David Graeber - activist, anarchist, and anthropologist - felt that something was different from previous demonstrations. As events gathered pace, from local actions like illegally teaching a seminar in the Bank of America lobby (in a tweed jacket he'd borrowed to look the part) to his harassment and attempted intimidation by New York police in Zuccotti Park, Graeber saw the other Occupy movements in Cairo, Athens, Barcelona and London and knew that times were truly changing.

This witty, provocative, yet wide-ranging and ideas-driven look at the actions of the 99% is a vital read in today's protest climate, and asks: why did it work this time? What went right? And what can we all do now to make our world democratic once again? An energetic account of contemporary events, The Democracy Project will change the way you think about anarchism and political organization.

David Graeber is a radical anthropologist at Goldsmiths, University of London, who has been involved with the Occupy movement, most actively at Wall Street. He has written for many publications including Harper's, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, and The Guardian. He is also the author, most recently, of the widely praised Debt: The First 5,000 Years, as well as many books on social organization and revolution including Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, Direct Action: An Ethnography.

'I have twice given away David Graeber's Debt: The First 5,000 Years, and Christmas will not change my habits. The book is more readable and entertaining than I can indicate' Peter Carey, Observer, Books of the Year

'Debt:The First 5,000 Years by Goldsmiths College anthropologist David Graeber has become one of the year's most influential books' Paul Mason, Guardian Books of 2011

David Graebers Lektüren historischer Entwicklungen verliefen schon immer gegen den Strich sowohl des liberalen wie des linken Mainstreams. Auf Grundlage seiner theoretischen wie praktischen Erfahrungen als Ethnologe und Anthropologe diskutiert er hier mit dem tunesisch-französischen Philosophen Mehdi Belhaj Kacem und der Anthropologin Assia Turquier-Zauberman die Genealogie anarchistischen Denkens und die möglichen Perspektiven für eine Politik des 21. Jahrhunderts. In einem Parcour quer zu den bekannten Linien des historischen Anarchismus und vor dem Hintergrund von Bewegungen wie Occupy Wall Street und Gilets Jaunes geht es darum, dem politischen Denken jenseits der allgemeinen Alternativlosigkeiten und politischen Schemata neue Impulse zu verschaffen. Der rasante Polylog exponiert Graeber dabei als geistreichen Querdenker und radikalen Aktivisten.