The book makes a good and strong case for it... though it's almost a side-note in the bigger scheme of what the book is trying to show: that we had civilization (and not even in some relativistic 'you have to squint to see it' way) all throughout our history.

You do realize that the author is a noted left wing activist/anarchist and affiliated with the Occupy movement? The Economist reviewed his prior book rather critically. Too many books are published these days masquerading as scholarly when they are actually nothing more than agitprop. This is one of them.