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.

Tim Whitmarsh. Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World. Faber & Faber, 2015.

David Graeber and Marshall Sahlins. On Kings. Hau Books, 2017.

David Graeber and David Wengrow. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Allen Lane, 2021.