Hello there, I'm looking for reference books or articles on the Neolithic Revolution, the context (I'm new to the Stone Age) and some light on its aftermath (which seems pretty overwhelming). I can read English and French. Thank you!
I had a similar question a while ago, some recommended books where mentionned in the thread :
I'm not sure what your academic background is, or how much archaeological jargon you are willing to stomach, but the original article on the Neolithic Revolution is available to read online; V. Gordon Childe's 1950 work "The urban revolution." Town Planning Review 21.1 (1950).
This article was the first to propose the idea and it set in motion the process of study and the archetype of the Neolithic Revolution. It proposes all the core ideas of the Neolithic Revolution and discusses some of the results. It's a bit dated, of course, but the main ideas of the theory are all there.
Another overview article about the Neolithic Revolution is Weisdorf, J. L. (2005), From Foraging To Farming: Explaining The Neolithic Revolution. Journal of Economic Surveys, 19: 561–586, also available to read online. This article is more recent, and provides a modern context to the theories and follow up work, updating Childe's work immensely.
I think if you read those two articles, you'll have a pretty decent idea of the Neolithic Revolution and its context, as well as the conversations and theories that have arisen since 1950.