The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World

<p>\"The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently,\" wrote David Graeber. A renowned anthropologist, activist, and author of such classic books as Debt and the breakout New York Times bestseller <i>The Dawn of Everything</i> (with David Wengrow), Graeber was as well-known for his sharp, lively essays as he was for his iconic role in the Occupy movement and his paradigm-shifting tomes.</p> <p>There are converging political, economic, and ecological crises, and yet our politics is dominated by either business as usual or nostalgia for a mythical past. Thinking against the grain, Graeber was one of the few who dared to imagine a new understanding of the past and a liberatory vision of the future--to imagine a social order based on humans' fundamental freedom. In essays published over three decades and ranging across the biggest issues of our time-- inequality, technology, the identity of \"the West,\" democracy, art, power, anger, mutual aid, and protest--he challenges the old assumptions about political life. A trenchant critic of the order of things, and driven by a bold imagination and a passionate commitment to human freedom, he offers hope that our world can be different.</p> <p>During a moment of daunting upheaval and pervasive despair, the incisive, entertaining, and urgent essays collected in <i>The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World</i> . . ., edited and with an introduction by Nika Dubrovksy and with a foreword by Rebecca Solnit, make for essential and inspiring reading. They are a profound reminder of Graeber's enduring significance as an iconic, playful, necessary thinker.</p>