In this new comprehensive history of human existence, renowned public intellectual David Graeber teams up with comparative archaeologist David Wengrow to chart the history of the millennia between the development of agriculture and where we find ourselves today. Challenging our preconceptions about momentous occasions in our history, Graeber and Wengrow show us how things that we take for granted as elements of society came into existence, from cities, to states, democracy, property, capitalism, and even the basic concept of hierarchy. By examining these features of society that seem most "naturalized" Graeber and Wengrow demonstrate that these features are not necessarily "natural" at all but rather the product of distinct ways of thinking about what human existence can or should be. By examining how we came to live in this world, full of political violence, exploitation, and social inequality, the authors show us how it might be otherwise, and how we might set about creating a more just world full of more possibilities for human emancipation.