davidgross13's review against another edition
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
This is my first time reading Graeber and it won’t be my last. Super easy to read. It’s not bombarded with academic jargon. It was really interesting to read and I’d recommend it for any anarchists. I picked this thing up 3, 4 hours ago and finished it in two sittings.
Blowing Up Walls had to be my favorite part because we often refuse to look at the past when the past has so much knowledge for us, even if it’s different in some ways than now.
Blowing Up Walls had to be my favorite part because we often refuse to look at the past when the past has so much knowledge for us, even if it’s different in some ways than now.
narodnokolo's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
hauntingpuns's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
daytonm's review against another edition
4.0
A great read, and delightfully short. Given the length, it's rather astounding all the things Graeber manages to do here: it works as a compelling introduction to anarchism, a fascinating collection of anthropological insight, and perhaps most excitingly an attempt to tear down the wall we've built up between "primitive" and "modern," a challenge to the idea that humans in states are really so so different than humans in tribes. (And of course, there's what it actually professes to be, which is a manifesto for a new anarchist social science rooted in anthropology, with suggestions of what such a science might choose to examine.) Graeber is a playful writer, provocative, often seeming to have at least part of his tongue in his cheek, but you get the sense that's part of the argument--he's trying to build a new world in the shell of the old, and the new world has got to be *fun*.
cinaedus's review against another edition
5.0
Graeber offers an intriguing perspective & a compelling argument concerning the nature of human societies & the State