UPDATE (March 2024): I'm going to amend the review I posted here about 18 months ago. That was very negative, and although I still don't like the book very much, there is more I want to say about it.

So, I've just finished reading "The Dawn of Everything" a second time. Many people whom I respect seem to think it's great, but I have a different opinion.

My biggest problem with this book is that it promises something that it never delivers. The authors begin by considering certain questions, leading us to believe they can answer them for us. They start with this: What is the origin of inequality in human societies? Soon, however, they dismiss that issue, saying it's basically meaningless and pointless to ask. Then they address the beginnings of agriculture, and show convincingly that many common beliefs about this are wrong. They explore the concept of civilization, discussing different meanings and different iterations that can be traced through history and even prehistory.

This is all useful and generally interesting (even if the presentation is often needlessly prolix). But then, more than halfway through the book, they finally get around to asking what they say is the key question: Where did it all go wrong, and how did we get to where we are today? After several tens of thousands of words more, they conclude by saying it's complicated, and more research is needed. That's honest, I suppose, and would be the proper scientific statement to make if it's where their work so far has taken them.

BUT — they could and should have told us that at the beginning of the book!! Instead they make us slog through hundreds of pages, plow through chapter after poorly-written chapter, enduring all the tedium until the ultimate letdown. The whole thing has been a tease.

ORIGINAL REVIEW (September 2022): These guys have a few interesting ideas they could have told us about in maybe 50 or 60 pages. But instead we get 500 pages of unreadable word vomit. Save your money and your time.