Origins of Authority
Debunking Myths of Kings and Gods
The legitimacy of authority has rarely rested on force alone. Kingship, priesthood, and divinity have been entangled since the earliest records. These books probe the anthropological and historical roots of that entanglement — and ask what it means for how we understand power today.
Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World. Faber & Faber, 2015.
On Kings. Hau Books, 2017.
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Allen Lane, 2021.