The Dawn of Everything

The Dawn of Everything tells the story of how we went from hunter-gatherers to city-builders, from the Stone Age to today’s modern world, all by exploring a series of new discoveries made by scientists who are challenging some long-held beliefs about our history.

In the 18th century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes were two of the most prominent philosophers in Western Europe. Their views about humanity were completely opposed.

Rousseau believed that human beings were inherently good. And that if society did not corrupt them, they would be kind and generous to one another. He said the agricultural revolution pushed people into a new world where they live in more complex structures that don’t benefit their true nature as hunter-gatherers.

Hobbes disagreed with Rousseau’s theory. He believed that human beings were inherently evil and selfish by nature. He also said that society was necessary in order to keep them from destroying each other. In fact, he thought that without social rules and laws, people would constantly fight over resources until there was nothing left to fight over!

Historians thought that both these views are partially correct and that we are a bit of both. However, modern thinkers are starting to argue that society didn’t develop as linearly as we were taught. In fact, there is more to history than these views and a lot of going backward instead of forward that we never knew about!

In the 15th century, the situation in Europe was dire. The Black Death had spread across the continent, killing over a third of its population. With so many people dead, there was a shortage of labor. This led to a popular idea: slavery.

When Europeans came to America and saw that the people here had different ideas about property ownership and slavery, they were shocked—and thought they’d found paradise. People in northern California lived communally and shared their possessions with each other.

They didn’t have any concept of private property or slavery because it wasn’t necessary for survival; This seemed like an ideal way of life to many Europeans who had grown tired of living with little food and no freedom under monarchies that treated them like slaves themselves.

However, many also felt that this way of life was too utopian to be true. In time, slavery became popular and lucrative, so it was maintained for hundreds of years. Slaves were major contributors to the lavish lifestyle of monarchs, although many didn’t agree with this idea.

Early kings relied on three principles: control of violence, control of information, and individual charisma. Otherwise, how would’ve they kept their power and authority? At the beginning of the monarchy, people still weren’t convinced that this is the direction…