Debt: The First 5000 Years
The standard story — barter leads to money leads to credit — is a myth economists invented. David Graeber traces 5,000 years of evidence showing debt came first, and it changes everything about how we understand markets.
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James Scott: Seeing Like a State
States fail because they can only see what they can measure. James C. Scott's central argument explains Soviet collectivization, urban planning disasters, and most bureaucratic failures in one framework.
David Graeber: The Dawn of Everything
Graeber and Wengrow's landmark book demolishes the standard story of human prehistory: early societies weren't simple, weren't inevitable, and weren't heading anywhere in particular. They were experimenting.
Everything You Learned About Civilization's Origins Is Wrong
The textbook story of civilization had a clean arc: farming, then cities, then states, then complexity. New archaeological evidence is dismantling that arc entirely. Our ancestors were far more interesting.
The Anthropology of Institutions
The standard story of civilization — small bands, then chiefs, then states — is contradicted by the archaeological record. What actually preceded modern institutions is weirder, and more hopeful.
Synthesis: Defending Your Mind
Recognizing propaganda after it's shaped your thinking is too late. The research on cognitive inoculation shows that pre-exposure to weakened forms of manipulation arguments can confer lasting resistance — like a mental vaccine. Here's the practical playbook.
Computational Propaganda: Bots and Astroturfing
Political bots don't need to convince you of anything. They just need to make a position look popular. Computational propaganda works by flooding information environments with coordinated, automated content — creating social proof for views that may have little actual support.