David Wengrow @davidwengrow Twitter profile

Pinned Tweet

David Wengrow

3 years

Apparently we have a book cover . . (it's on the web, so I figure I can tweet it). Missing @davidgraeber . #TheDawnOfEverything

113

340

2K

Last Seen Profiles

@artbatmusic

@akatsuki_no_uta

@WhatADdoing

@vpgrignol

@VinimonDX

@Rwarna1

@shiraga_cosplay

@mika_liy

@algorithm_bot_

@buchii_gustavo

@yukinashnh56845

@AcadCulArts

@MartinGal

@yassportsTV

@rootshoot

@turbanlisever69

@tbsagb

@jtbrowning54

@8thsssub

@mashumaro134288

@KurtzVitor

@_o__o_l

@tmsturridge

@coach_J_Santi

@enespekel_

@YoichiMurata

@farzana_versey

@aomoritaishoken

@Souljarilo

@TypicalRBLX

@mna354265777453

@sindicoagg

@Lionel_LLC

@LadyAgri

@dijalekticar

@DLGarber

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

10 months

Jesus.

170

735

11K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Finally got to see one of these things so took a moment to stop and remember my friend . .

35

166

3K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

This is how I will always remember David Graeber. On top of the world. WE DID IT DAVID #TheDawnOfEverything

35

222

2K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

It's a monster . .

41

110

2K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

Thank you to everyone who wrote today, for your kind words. @davidgraeber was my intellectual soulmate, and more than a dear friend - a "substitute brother" as he liked to say. I will finish what we started. I know it's what he expects of me. It's beginning. #TheDawnOfEverything

50

193

2K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

Where is David Graeber? Myself, I like to imagine he’s forever on board a pirate ship just like the one in Our Flag Means Death, with a crew of amiable rogues and a large private library, sailing the high seas .. I believe the ship is called Revenge.

32

154

2K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 months

I’m sending a birthday message to David Graeber (aboard his celestial pirate ship) - David: the world just keeps on getting worse without you in it (p.s. rumours down here say I’m working on a sequel to our book and some of them may be true).

35

160

2K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

"The priest-king is dead. The Indus civilization was egalitarian, but this is not because it lacked complexity; rather, it is because a ruling class is not a prerequisite for social complexity." Yup.

12

375

1K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

So happy to see this finally coming out .. (1/3)

14

203

1K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

8 months

Academic double standards in defining democracy are staggering - Ancient Greece gets a free pass desp. chattel slavery/no women, but Indigenous parliament of Tlaxcala app. doesn’t count since they weren’t acting like immediate-return foragers .. (slowly starting to write again).

35

177

1K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Two years ago today we lost you - still learning from you every day @davidgraeber Rest in peace, my friend.

18

120

1K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

is it OK to post a selfie of my own book? it’s just this is the first time I’m seeing the US edition and it’s kind of incredible . .

64

59

1K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

8 months

Can’t quite grasp it’s already been 3 years since we lost David Graeber .. I’ll do my best to honour his memory tomorrow by talking about our work together, and where some of my thoughts have been going since. Please register to join free/online:

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

9 months

Please join us on the anniversary of David Graeber's passing, when I will present the 3rd annual lecture in honour of his memory: THE THIRD FREEDOM Co-hosted - free/online - by @RojavaUniv @LSEAnthropology @BUAPoficial @CIIS_anthro Register here:

15

229

721

12

222

1K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Wow .. in what is possibly his first public comment on #TheDawnOfEverything , Steven Pinker - who presents himself as a champion of scientific values and rational debate - goes straight for the personal and political.

Steven Pinker

@sapinker

2 years

David Wengrow & the trouble with rewriting human history. He & late coauthor Graeber, with political motivation, simplistically use me, Harari & Diamond as foils, though our books simply recount the obvious ...

1

27

134

88

101

1K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

8 months

Might it be helpful if I wrote a short, explanatory piece “On historical materialism and #TheDawnOfEverything ”?

92

50

1K

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

I don’t wanna come off all Hobbesian and competitive but it’s a buzz to see something other than Sapiens in the airport lounges. (Especially when that other is your work with David Graeber).

20

45

937

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

now this I really did not see coming . .

27

82

922

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

Fantastic to see this deep engagement with the ideas of #DavidGraeber by economic historians of the ancient Mediterranean/Middle East: he would have been thrilled by this new volume of essays, restoring a dialogue between ancient history and anthropology.

8

142

843

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

I love cases in archaeology where some overlord establishes a palace in an existing settlement and the first thing to happen is almost everyone else runs away, so the site actually shrinks. We need a proper terminology for this sort of thing to build an archaeology of freedom.

55

94

836

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

A tribute to our brilliant, magical David. My guru and my conjurer, as he saw fit. David Graeber, 1961–2020 @davidgraeber via @nybooks

David Graeber, 1961–2020 | Astra Taylor

David Graeber, the anthropologist and activist, died aged fifty-nine on September 2, 2020. The New York Review, to which he began contributing last year, is collecting tributes from his friends and...

www.nybooks.com

16

248

807

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

I'm considering writing a short book, called: "How Aliens Built the Pyramids: A Study in Racism." (Seriously, I already have an outline)

Elon Musk

@elonmusk

4 years

Aliens built the pyramids obv

22K

57K

460K

49

90

774

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

Archaeologists, remember this: lots of people don't want you to be an intellectual. Not the geneticists, nor the evolutionary psychologists, nor the political scientists. Cos you command the data for most of human history. Don't just be a passive supplier: DIG AND THINK BIG!

14

124

760

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

I don’t normally reference this site but just to say we’re still out there winning readers for actual archaeology & anthropology

35

60

775

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

9 months

Please join us on the anniversary of David Graeber's passing, when I will present the 3rd annual lecture in honour of his memory: THE THIRD FREEDOM Co-hosted - free/online - by @RojavaUniv @LSEAnthropology @BUAPoficial @CIIS_anthro Register here:

15

229

721

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

6 years

Why do we cling to a concept of "Civilisation" that's elitist, authoritarian, and systematically excludes the contributions of women? Current events in the Middle East tell us it's time to rethink #civilisations - my new ideas piece @aeonmag

A history of true civilisation is not one of monuments | Aeon Ideas

A true definition of civilisation is about extended moral community, and has little to do with monuments and memorials

aeon.co

27

342

684

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

Huge downer that David Graeber can't see this today - minor solace that all the vapid bores and haters can.

14

73

683

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

21 days

As the last recipient of the Albertus Magnus Professorship, I am adding my voice to those who denounce the decision to withdraw this honour from Prof. Nancy Fraser, and have written accordingly to the Rector of the University of Cologne. Perhaps they can still change course.

Sandipto Dasgupta

@sandiptodg

21 days

Proud of the response by the President of @TheNewSchool to the cancellation of Nancy Fraser's appointment by the University of Cologne

5

151

491

9

173

681

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Don’t get #TheDawnOfEverything wrong - there’s nothing in it about going back to ancient life-ways to solve our problems. Not a single line. It’s really about demolishing all the wrong stories about “what we can’t do” so we can see where we are now, today with the blinkers off.

13

100

649

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

So excited to be part of this remarkable new volume .. coming soon [1/3]

12

94

649

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

Our emerging understanding of the Neanderthals may soon accord them more agency, social awareness, and general humanity than the average behavioural ecologist accords to recent hunter-gatherers .. philosophically, that strikes me as kind of intriguing.

25

85

650

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

First reactions to #TheDawnOfEverything : magical, marvellous, much missed @davidgraeber - all this is for you! Thanks so much to R.D.G.Kelley, R.Solnit, J.Scott, P.Mishra, @CoreyRobin , @nntaleb , Prof.Chomsky, J.Lanier, and @rcbregman

26

136

642

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

A friend just told me we're currently #3 in Books in the US (as in ALL books). I assumed they're joking - it's not even out in the US for three more weeks. Then I looked and . .

23

29

629

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

Just out: this in-depth review in @TheAtlantic is both very moving and also gets right to the heart of the matter about #TheDawnOfEverything - what this book of mine and @davidgraeber is truly about.

Human History Gets a Rewrite

A brilliant new account upends bedrock assumptions about 30,000 years of change.

www.theatlantic.com

23

196

628

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

10 months

So happy to see this is on the way ..

13

137

623

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

5 years

Indigenous American habits - smoking pipes, drinking chocolate - transformed European social customs in the "Age of Reason." Why does it never occur to anyone that Europeans also borrowed Indigenous ideas (e.g. about liberty and other "enlightened" concepts) not just soft drugs?

20

232

607

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

I wrote a piece for @thenation about so-called “pseudo-archaeology,” and what it does to our sense of history.

Apocalypse No! Pseudo-Archaeology, Ancient Tech-Lords, and Ordinary People.

Why the Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse is worth taking seriously. Hint: It’s not the science.

www.thenation.com

26

149

580

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 months

"an apolitical archaeology is a dangerous academic myth." -Christopher Tilley (1989) Rest in peace Chris.

9

129

534

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

The Dawn of 50 .. oh well.

49

5

522

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

11 months

The planet is dying, the world is an increasingly authoritarian and dysfunctional place and STILL people with full academic credentials keep asking me what we meant by getting “stuck”… #TheDawnOfEverything

18

90

516

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

as if not enough had happened today, now there's this too #TheDawnOfEverything

What if Everything You Learned About Human History Is Wrong? (Published 2021)

In “The Dawn of Everything,” the anthropologist David Graeber and the archaeologist David Wengrow aim to rewrite the story of our shared past — and future.

www.nytimes.com

10

77

495

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

🗞️ We did it again #DavidGraeber !! #TheDawnOfEverything paperback lands in at #8 @nytimes Best Sellers

16

42

480

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

10 months

@astradisastra David MUST be watching (from somewhere..)

0

3

469

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Sorry to state the obvious but if you start a study with the prior assumption that technologies of extraction, violence + control are what makes society “complex” you are logically bound to conclude that technologies of extraction, violence + control are drivers of “complexity”.

9

97

439

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

Saddened to learn Marshall Sahlins - a titan of anthropology - has died. We communicated just two weeks ago and he seemed pugnacious as ever. I was honoured to know him, and hope he and @davidgraeber his most brilliant student are having beautiful conversations in a better place.

7

64

435

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

A MILLION views and 30k likes - I guess that’s pretty alright for fifteen minutes of mostly archaeology talk .. thanks for tuning in 🙏

David Wengrow: A new understanding of human history and the roots of inequality

What if the commonly accepted narratives about the foundation of civilization are all wrong? Drawing on groundbreaking research, archaeologist David Wengrow challenges traditional thinking about the...

www.ted.com

11

70

437

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

5 years

Like so many other cultural goods we now perceive as "everyday things," raised bread began in Mesopotamia (c.3500 BC) as a prestige/festive food. Here's what it looked like, baked in those pots (experimental study by Dr. Jill Goulder, which I had the fun of supervising):

13

138

433

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

Archaeologists and anthropologists have followed political scientists in allowing “the state” to drift into that category of things which is apparently so obvious a force in history that it no longer needs to be defined - a bit like how economists treat money. This is a mistake.

4

71

423

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

When I come across some ridiculously muddled or convoluted study claiming insight into human social evolution I always look for the subtext and it’s nearly always some attempt to sneak in the idea that extremely hierarchical social arrangements make us more “complex” (they don’t)

9

66

420

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Reply to Arjun Appadurai's editorial about David Graeber and 'The Dawn of Everything' (editorial and invited response both published in Anthropology Today vol.38)

22

61

415

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

#TheDawnOfEverything is currently the *best-selling* book in Canada. As in #1 . I’m speechless, and if you’ve read it you will know what a special resonance this has. I so want @davidgraeber to know. Thank you to all our readers.

11

40

422

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Is it just my Anglophone eyes or do those chapter headings look really killer in Spanish? 👀 Anyway, it’s finally here, and I have to say it’s rather beautiful: #ElAmanecerDeTodo #TheDawnOfEverything

25

55

399

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

UK release of #TheDawnOfEverything is set for 19th Oct. and clearly we are going for English understatement

13

61

389

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

Am feeling the absence of @davidgraeber very keenly these days, and know many others out there are too. Here - some small comfort, perhaps - is a ✨new essay✨ on #democracy that we wrote together for @laphamsquart . David was looking forward to it's release . . 1/2

3

77

386

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

THE DAWN OF EVERYTHING debuts on the New York Times Best Seller list - #2 Rest in Power David Graeber #TheDawnOfEverything

14

39

385

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

@l_u_n_a13 @SrslyWrong Individual freedoms exercised without care for others are not really social freedoms, just micro-forms of domination. that’s the essence of the distinction.

7

146

387

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

In 2004 respected American archaeologist John E. Clark showed the most ancient mound complexes from Peru to the Mississippi were built according to a common standard of measurement and proportion. Amazing! The academic response so far is a little concerning. In Clark's own words:

13

113

374

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

Why are arts and sciences moving further apart, in academic circles? I suspect it's simply what happens when intellectual life becomes naked financial competition, but it's a huge backward step in terms of original, creative thinking. I plan to work with artists and scientists.

22

45

374

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

In #TheDawnOfEverything , @davidgraeber and I use evidence of the deep past to reveal new possibilities for humanity's future. But what could this mean, in the context of climate crisis? Some thoughts ( @guardian it's humanity, please, not just "mankind"):

Humanity is not trapped in a deadly game with the Earth – there are ways out | David Wengrow

The author of a landmark book that challenges our view of history argues catastrophe is not foretold. We are freer to act than we think

www.theguardian.com

17

108

375

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

5 years

Why do people talk about "primitive" democracy in Ancient Mesopotamia? If Mesopotamian democracy really was based on consensual decision making, surely it was less primitive than modern democracy, which turns politics into a game of winners and losers. Democracy has regressed.

10

81

356

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

24 days

Still trying to get my head around this

The unlikely literary inspiration behind Francis Ford Coppola’s new film.

Fellow travelers and cinephiles—look sharp. Solidarity may really be upon us. Word on the street is that Francis Ford Coppola’s much-anticipated epic, Megalopolis, about an idealistic architect wit…

lithub.com

28

47

379

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

Looks pretty certain #TheDawnOfEverything will be out exactly a year from now. In the meantime, @davidgraeber and I had another essay in the pipeline: "Hiding in Plain Sight - Democracy's Indigenous Origins in the Americas" Coming soon in @laphamsquart . Watch this space.

11

60

360

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

Yes, in #TheDawnOfEverything @davidgraeber and I will define #3Freedoms that we think were once common to many human societies: 1. to refuse orders. 2. to move away (which also implies hospitality). 3. to create entirely new social orders (or move between different ones).

go to the elephant site @[email protected]

@rechelon

4 years

One of Graeber's core arguments in Bullshit Jobs is that humans desire to have an impact upon the world, and bullshit jobs effectively function as prisons, limiting our capacity to change the wider world. Freedom, in short, is about the extent to which we can change the universe.

2

88

338

11

103

360

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

Edits done. Time to let this go . . #TheDawnOfEverything

David Graeber

@davidgraeber

4 years

@JBujes @davidwengrow title isn't quite there yet, because I don't think they'll let us call it "The Dawn of Everything." For subject, this might give a hint:

2

4

31

20

33

362

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

7 months

#NewProfilePic

7

26

367

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

I've been asked to give the Radcliffe-Brown Lecture, which David Graeber would otherwise have given (it's one of the highest academic honours in our field, and they'd like to hear about our joint work on #TheDawnOfEverything ). I think I'll talk about freedom. More on this soon.

8

20

358

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

Suddenly recalled @davidgraeber and I once had pics taken for a feature in a French news magazine. They were never actually used in the piece that came out for "Marianne" but thanks so much to @kalpeshlathigra for keeping and sharing these today: they are invaluable to me now.

5

20

349

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

‘We returned to our palaces, these Kingdoms, but no longer at ease here in the old dispensation, with an alien people clutching their gods.’ #DavidGraeber - a year today, may your soul rest in peace, as your thoughts play wild and free!

4

67

341

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

I've been asked to give a fairly prominent lecture on the topic: "Historically, has inequality increased as societies have become larger and more complex?" and I'm realising that I have to unpack every single assumption that's built into the question - it's actually quite fun.

10

22

342

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

One of those moments I instinctively reach for my phone to tell @davidgraeber - like some lost limb I can still feel. Even if there’s a heaven he won’t see this because I’m 100% sure that #twitter lives deep down in the other place.

BrunoLatour

@BrunoLatourAIME

2 years

A good therapy for ecodepressed: place Graeber and Wengrow to open up the past & “The Ministry for the Future” by Robinson to open up the future. At once, you breathe a fresher air because you realize how poor in imagination are those who are stuck in between feeling powerless.

10

126

717

7

35

346

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

And it just got a lot more real. #TheDawnOfEverything .. we did it David!

David Graeber

@davidgraeber

6 years

It has begun! Prehistory: everything you know is wrong.

36

356

604

16

40

336

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

A little Sunday poem for my absent friend. It's called: 'You like to think, . . . but you're wrong' (or #TheDawnOfEverything in 12 short movements) For @davidgraeber

19

100

331

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

9 months

David Graeber's ResearchGate account in early 2019 (this "project" feature doesn't seem to exist anymore, but I kept a screenshot for sentimental purposes) It's funny and sad to look back on now, since we were pretty certain the publishers would never go for this particular title

10

329

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

10 months

Aha! At last a serious treatment of the modern myths surrounding Indo-European “origins” - by someone who really knows the history of the topic @JPDemoule (and I said so on the back).

13

58

332

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

Please allow me to introduce . . "Au commencement était" ( #TheDawnOfEverything in French)

19

40

333

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

GAME ON!

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow review — how...

First, a brief history of our species: humans appeared 300,000 years ago, then nothing much happened until 288,000 years later when some bright spark invented a

www.thetimes.co.uk

18

46

326

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Humanity is not trapped in a deadly game with the Earth – there are ways out | David Wengrow

The author of a landmark book that challenges our view of history argues catastrophe is not foretold. We are freer to act than we think

www.theguardian.com

9

111

330

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

At 3:03am on 1 August 2016 David Graeber sent me the manuscript of a long, playful essay called #PirateEnlightenment . This week it finally sees the light of day (in English; the French book oddly came out first). It's a gem, all the more precious now he's gone. [1/more]

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

So happy to see this finally coming out .. (1/3)

14

203

1K

5

41

325

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

in my non-existent spare time I've been embarking on some new collaborative projects. I'll be talking about one of them, with @ForensicArchi , next Friday evening @AASchool (or attempting to, after a happy day of teaching @UCLarchaeology ). Details here:

7

47

315

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

Definitely the coolest author dedication I've ever received (and a very important book)

3

19

316

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

It's actually disturbing how many grand theories about the development of human societies are predicated on the idea that people in other times or places were infantile or just remarkably stupid (I'm coming around to the idea these are distinctly modern traits, and on the rise).

10

42

313

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

10 years on this is my copy of Debt - which @davidgraeber gave me over a bowl of ramen near Times Square, which is roughly how #TheDawnOfEverything started.

5

21

314

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

Woke to a(nother) anon. email attacking the "Africanist" bias of my '90s work on early Egypt and its cultural unity with African rather than Asia. To be clear, I consider this one of my most important scientific contributions, and stand by every word of it . . 1/3

13

55

303

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

. . in which we consider what a new global history of #democracy could look like if we abandon an "Elgin marbles" view of the past. Rest in peace, dear friend. 2/2 #Tlaxcala #Mesoamerica #TheDawnOfEverything @astradisastra here you go.

Hiding in Plain Sight | David Graeber and David Wengrow

Democracy’s indigenous origins in the Americas.

www.laphamsquarterly.org

13

100

305

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

It's Saturday and we are BOOK OF THE DAY #TheDawnOfEverything @davidgraeber The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow review – inequality is not the price of civilisation

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow review – inequality is not the price of...

An archaeologist and an anthropologist dismantle received wisdom about the way early societies operated

www.theguardian.com

4

70

304

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

We always intended that #TheDawnOfEverything would stimulate debate among our academic colleagues, but this really isn't the way. My answer to Dr. Bell, not very long, but a bit too long for a tweet - so for those who are interested, it's here in two screenshots back to back.

David A. Bell

@DavidAvromBell

2 years

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow has been extravagantly hyped in the media, and is #2 on the NYT best-seller list. But its treatment of the Enlightenment comes close to scholarly malpractice. My take.

16

77

288

11

44

304

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

1 year

Impromptu signing of #TheDawnOfEverything at the legendary Bahri & Sons Bookshop in Khan Market, Delhi - with the great Mithilesh in shot. Thanks to @MukulikaB for the introduction!

8

9

308

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

This last week I received very moving emails about #TheDawnOfEverything , from a factory worker in the Basque Country, another from a retired (female) coal miner in Pittsburgh. I pay close attention to academic book reviews but letters like these matter to me in a much deeper way.

11

26

301

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Contemporary archaeology shows early cities often thrived without autocratic rulers, and sometimes w/o rulers at all. A case in point here, to add to those we discuss in #TheDawnOfEverything (file under: “egalitarian cities”)

Equality was key to ancient Mexican city’s success, study suggests

At its peak Monte Albán was home to 17,000 people, despite a lack of water supplies or fertile land

www.theguardian.com

10

106

296

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Having suffered my way through a minor litany of disingenuous and sometimes downright obtuse takes on #DavidGraeber and our work in #TheDawnOfEverything , this is healing. Thank you @doctorow

Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK

@doctorow

2 years

We've lost so much to the pandemic. Every day I wake and think of all the lives snuffed out, all the plans smashed, all the stories never told. I think about poor @davidgraeber , whom I spoke with just a few weeks before his sudden death in Sept 2020. 1/

21

262

944

13

25

295

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

@joshraclaw I was recently chastised by a journal reviewer for ignoring Wengrow's seminal contributions to the topic at hand. The editor was a bit flummoxed.

3

296

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

5 years

"I have skin in this game. I am a professor of data science at NYU .. We need to question data rather than assuming that just because we’ve assigned a number to something that it’s suddenly the cold, hard Truth." via @qz

I’m a data scientist who is skeptical about data

We’ve conflated data with truth. And this has dangerous implications for our ability to understand, explain, and improve the things we care about.

qz.com

6

83

290

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

Close to finishing edits on #TheDawnOfEverything but with a heavy heart, as it feels like a conversation I started long ago with @davidgraeber is ending. Today was to be his 60th birthday. David liked putting out teasers, so in his spirit, here's one from our conclusion: (1/3)

6

53

293

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

My friend was just the best.

Read Let This Radicalize You

@JoshuaPHilll

2 years

Written by David Graeber shortly before his death, and published in March, 2021. At least as relevant now, and worth every second of your time.

25

2K

5K

6

60

292

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

3 years

"Ultimately, a society that accepts the story presented here as its official origin story — a story that is taught in its schools, that seeps into its public consciousness — will have to be radically different than the society we are currently living in."

David Graeber Knew Ordinary People Could Remake the World

A new book by David Wengrow and the late David Graeber is a brilliant rejection of the fatalistic myths of human history — and a defense of our power to shape our own world.

jacobin.com

1

73

289

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

gulp . . #TheDawnOfEverything is now up to 23 (!!) foreign language translations, to appear over the coming year or so. Still missing Arabic, Farsi, and Kurdish (both varieties) .. if anyone's tempted?

23

26

283

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

ok, i can officially no longer keep up with reactions to #TheDawnOfEverything but will continue to try - may they flourish and multiply until 1 day I have time to write After the Dawn: "In Which I Respond to Reviews, Responses, and Responses Masquerading as Book Reviews." Thanks!

7

9

285

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

Not for the first time I'm asked to write a letter supporting the promotion of a female colleague who nurtured my own academic development, and who I consider (in the true sense of professional achievement) to be vastly my senior. I'm the product of a system that has to change.

4

45

283

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

2 years

Thing about @davidgraeber - he didn’t actually need an official poster campaign to have his ideas plastered all over the London Tube (remember 2015 “subvertisements”?) Still, we proudly present.. #TheDawnOfEverything #Underground

5

35

283

David Wengrow

@davidwengrow

4 years

Just submitted the last research article I wrote with @davidgraeber to a well-known archaeology journal. We finished back in spring but with one thing and another.. In case they don't want it and someone else does it's called: "Cultural schismogenesis and the origins of farming."

4

35

274