'"It is time to abandon certain long-cherished myths about an 'original' form of human society."
David Wengrow is an archaeologist, author, and Professor of Comparative Archaeology at University College London whose work re-examines some of the most familiar stories we tell about the past.
Wengrow is best known as the co-author, with the late David Graeber, of The Dawn of Everything, a widely read and debated book that reconsiders the origins of inequality, democracy, and the modern state. His broader body of work spans the archaeology of early cities, art, and political organisation, with publications including What Makes Civilization? and The Origins of Monsters. Across both academic and public writing, Wengrow brings archaeological evidence into direct conversation with contemporary political questions, challenging the idea that human societies have followed a single, inevitable path.
"The Dawn of Eveything is also the radical revision of everything, liberating us from the familiar stories about humanity’s past that are too often deployed to impose limitations on how we imagine humanity's future." — Rebecca Solnit
