Alefia’s Reviews > The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity > Status Update

"In ancient Egypt, as so often in history, significant political accomplishments occur in precisely those periods (the so-called 'dark ages') that get dismissed or overlooked because no one was building grandiose monuments in stone."

"In summary, the transition from Old Kingdom to First Intermediate period was not so much a shift from 'order' to 'chaos' - as Egyptological orthodoxy once had it - as a swing from 'sovereignty' to 'charismatic politics' as different ways of framing the exercise of power. With that came a shift in emphasis, from the people's care of god-like rulers to the care of the people as a legitimate path to authority."

"People have an unfortunate tendency yo see the successful prosecution of arbitrary violence as in some sense divine, or at least to identify it with some kind of transcendental power."

"We would like to suggest that these three principles - call them control of violence, control of information, and individual charisma - are also the three possible bases of social power."

ahs vezes este livro eh muito bom e outras vezes a escrita eh tao confusa e repetitiva e dificil... mesmo assim vale a pena

"Human thought is inherently dialogic. [...] Humans were only fully self-conscious when arguing with one another, trying to sway each other's views, or working out a common problem."