Did humans evolve inevitably from small bands to farms to states, or did we repeatedly chose from a menu of social arrangements? Graeber and Wengrow marshal fresh archaeology and anthropology to show cities without kings or police, councils that governed large populations, and seasonal hierarchies that dissolved each year.

The authors argue that no single ‘agricultural revolution’ trapped us; pathways were multiple, reversible and often deliberate. Along the way they puncture the Hobbes-versus-Rousseau story and foreground three deep freedoms common in many societies: to move away, to refuse commands, and to remake social ties. The result is prehistory as a record of experimentation, not a staircase.

If our ancestors had options, so do we—this book reopens our political imagination at a moment when many feel there is no alternative.