This book is structured as a Socratic dialogue, which has the advantages of being easy to read and easy to understand. 
 (view spoiler)[The thesis presented is that when agriculture was developed, an entirely new form of culture arose, the taker culture, where man seeks to control his destiny, rather than relaxing and enjoying the fruits of the garden around him. (hide spoiler)] 
 My favorite part of the historical/anthropological analysis was an exegesis of the meaning of the tree of knowledge of good and evil from the story of the garden of Eden. I had always wondered about that tree. What was it about the knowledge of good and evil that could possibly be upsetting to God? The most plausible explanation I had been able to find was that humans put themselves on the same level as God, lording it over creation with their knowledge of good and evil. The author puts this story in its historical context and it becomes clear just what was (or rather, is, because as the book makes clear, it's still all very much with us today) going on here. This was a hopeful book 25 years ago.... 
 Nota Bene: Apart from a few anthropologists, the only real person mentioned in the book is ... 
 wait for it ... 
 Donald Trump.