Graeber has been described as the intellectual centre of the 'anti-globalisation' movement so I thought. A few, like me, are agnostic and study it to form a firmer opinion.

Now, most people have one of three views re capitalism - they think it works, they think its evil or they don't think about it at all. This book is essentially about capitalism. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it.Ī Gigantic, Frustrating, Maddening Disappointment.ĭon't be deceived. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like 'guilt', 'sin', and 'redemption') derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods - that is, long before the invention of coins or cash.

Here, anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: He shows that before there was money, there was debt. Now in audio, the updated and expanded edition: David Graeber's ' exceedingly timely' ( Financial Times) history of debt.

David graeber history of debt