# War Before Civilization by Lawrence Keeley

2 Hacker News commenters recommended War Before Civilization by Lawrence Keeley and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a grounded account of what archaeology and anthropology can reconstruct about prehistoric and pre-colonial warfare, and as a view that still reflects the field's mainstream thinking.

## Why people recommend it

- Reflects mainstream anthropological perspective (1 comments): "Last I checked there hadn’t been major shifts away from the perspective this represents, in anthropology." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46146765))
- Useful view of pre-colonial America (1 comments): "A good read for some perspective on what we can piece together about what pre-colonial America was like" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48252075))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dawn-of-everything.md): 23 recommend
- [Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cadillac-desert.md): 18 recommend
- [The Box by Marc Levinson](https://hackerapproved.com/p/box.md): 16 recommend
- [Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sapiens.md): 13 recommend
- [Chip War by Chris Miller](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chip-war.md): 13 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195119126?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780195119121) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "War Before Civilization by Lawrence Keeley", https://hackerapproved.com/p/war-before-civilization/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).