Reviews and Comments

Graeber books are sometimes intimidating -- I'd say if you just read the first 100 pages, you'll have read a great, somewhat self-contained, narrative. Of course, you'll just have had a taste, and the larger stronger thesis is worth learning about.

All the amazing Native American cultures and across the world are worth it.

Changed my neolib thinking, realizing even the most fundamental things that we learn in econ classes aren't as foundational as we're led to believe.

Started this -- it's like Studs Turkel for 4000 years ago

When I first heard of this book and its title, I assumed it would be pretty wu-wu. What it turned out to be was a heart-felt memoir by a scientist about how they turned their intuition about the forest as a child into some nobel-prize-deserving discoveries.

The book opens with the most appetizing mouth-watering descriptions of dirt -- the "good" dirt is called humus, and the literary feat of making me feel like I missed out in my childhood for avoiding mushroomy loamy dirt allowed the author quite a bit of running room as she described her early years. Getting into the discoveries themselves and going up against a logging-industry intoxicated national service was wonderful.