List of Maps and Figures vii
Foreword and Dedication ix
Acknowledgements xi
1. Farewell to Humanity's Childhood Or, why this is not a book about the origins of inequality 1
2. Wicked Liberty The indigenous critique and the myth of progress 27
3. Unfreezing the Ice Age In and out of chains: the protean possibilities of human politics 78
4. Free People, the Origin of Cultures, and the Advent of Private Property (Not necessarily in that order) 120
5. Many Seasons Ago Why Canadian foragers kept slaves and their Californian neighbours didn't; or, the problem with 'modes of production' 164
6. Gardens of Adonis The revolution that never happened: how Neolithic peoples avoided agriculture 210
7. The Ecology of Freedom How farming first hopped, stumbled and bluffed its way around the world 249
8. Imaginary Cities Eurasia's first urhanites - in Mesopotamia, the Indus valley, Ukraine and China - and how they built cities without kings 276
9. Hiding in Plain Sight The indigenous origins of social bousing and democracy in the Americas 328
10. Why the State Has No Origin The humble beginnings of sovereignty, bureaucracy and politics 359
11. Full Circle On the historical foundations of the indigenous critique 441
12. Conclusion The dawn of everything 493
Notes 527
Bibliography 611
Index 675