Apparently it was the Americans who invented the idea of equality. (No, not the Founding Fathers, those guys were Jefferson-come-latelies.)

There is a new and decidedly wonky book asking shocking questions and stirring up academia. It opens with the Age of Enlightenment, when European philosophers were arguing over things like the nature of man, equality and freedom, and the best forms of government, referencing sources from Rome, ancient Greece, and the very beginnings of “civilization.” On the gloomy side, guys like Thomas Hobbes believed that men were inherently vicious, and life before civilization was “nasty, brutish and short.” On the upbeat side, Jean-Jacques Rousseau coined the phrase, “noble savage,” arguing that humans in their natural state were kind, generous creatures, before civilization corrupted us all.

But hang on there – the book says – here’s a bigger question: why were Europeans in the 1700’s talking about things like equality at all? After all, Europe was a land of absolute monarchs, patriarchal religion, and a strict hierarchical structure. The idea that individuals might be born with inherent rights, that we might all be in some way “equal,” had never been a European concept at all!

So where did these philosophers get this new idea? Well, in the previous century, European explorers had made first contact with peoples across the New World and beyond. In the northeast of America, along the St. Lawrence River, French Jesuit missionaries set out to baptize the locals. And when these Europeans patiently explained the superiority of their “civilized” society to the natives, the Americans were decidedly underwhelmed. They responded with detailed critiques: “How can anyone own the land?”; “Why would one person be more important and powerful than another, or own somebody else?”; “Who would ever make a decision without first talking it over with everyone?”; “Why would anyone ever let some else rule over them?”; “Who made you the boss?”; etc.

The book suggests that when this “indigenous critique” was brought back to Europe, it was a shock to the system, and it lit the fuse on the Enlightenment. Which eventually fired the American Revolution and the French Revolution. Which led to new forms of government that spread the idea of equality around the world.

Which ultimately means that everything we’ve been taught about “western democracy” – life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness…liberte, egalite, fraternite – may not have gotten its impetus from Europe, or Rome, or ancient Greece or even Babylon. Perhaps, just maybe – wait for it – we ultimately owe our freedoms to some eye-opening discussions held long ago in Algonquin wigwams and Iroquois longhouses!

Wow. And that’s just the prologue, Chapter One, of the book. It goes on to tear down all kinds of foundational beliefs, with lots of detailed indigenous and multi-cultural perspectives. (The bibliography is 63 pages long!) Folks in the academic world are both amazed and aghast. The Atlantic calls the book, “A glorious mess.” The NY Times Book Review asks, “What if everything you learned about human history is wrong?” The Washington Post concludes, “This isn’t a book that attempts to be scientifically accurate, whatever that might mean. It’s a polemic.”

It’s also a mind-blower. It ultimately argues that the best answers to the existential challenges of our modern world might not be found in the halls of power, but rather in the wisdom of indigenous cultures, in all the back-corners of the world, largely dismissed by “civilization.”

Radical.

Welcome to “The Dawn of Everything,” by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Fair warning: you’re gonna need two cups of coffee for this one.