Every time I read a review of this book when it came out, the review author would say something like “wow! great! So exciting, EXCEPT in this area *where I am a

Every time I read a review of this book when it came out, the review author would say something like “wow! great! So exciting, EXCEPT in this area *where I am an expert*, the authors got X, Y and Z badly wrong.” There were reviews like that when it came out from people in a bunch of disciplines, certainly in anthropology and prehistory included. Graeber’s prior book about Debt has been widely criticized in my own field. As a result I haven’t felt like it was worth the time to invest in this one even though the topic and the idea seem extremely interesting. It seems like the authors have an axe to grind and a story to tell and whatever evidence they find against it is either ignored or misinterpreted.