Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

The Origins of Debt, Money, Slavery and Empire
21 Sep 2011
🖨️ Print Article

Like most of us, you probably learned in school that people invented money to replace barter, markets are guided by The Invisible Hand, and a debt is a kind of sacred promise.  Like much else you learned in school, says anthropologist David Graeber, this is wrong.  Markets are constructed by states, while the appearance of debt, slavery and money in human affairs coincide with the appearance of violent empires, and recede when empires are in decline.  Debts are only sacred, Graeber explains, when the poor owe the rich, and there are key distinctions between debts and promises.  Graeber, the author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years is interviewed by C.S. Soong on KPFA's Against the Grain...

The Origins of Debt, Money, Slavery and Empire

An Against the Grain Interview by C.S. Soong and Sasha Lilley

KPFA.s Against the Grain is consistently one of the best interview shows around.  We at BAR steal ideas from them all the time.  You can find a link to Debt: The First 5,000 Years here.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://www.againstthegrain.org/files/files/atg/atg_2013.01.07_graeber.mp3

More Stories


  • Kamala Harris
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Politics Behind the End of Biden's Campaign and His Endorsement of Kamala Harris
    26 Jul 2024
    Dr. Anthony Monteiro joins us to discuss the 2024 presidential election in the wake of Joe Biden’s announcement that he is standing down from his re-election campaign and endorsing Vice President…
  • Mukasa Dada
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Mukasa Dada and the Liberation Movement
    26 Jul 2024
    Mukasa Dada talks to us about his liberation movement work and his recent participation in a delegation traveling to Nicaragua.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Nicaraguan Democracy Exposes the U.S. Oligarchy
    24 Jul 2024
    The Republic of Nicaragua recently celebrated 45 years of its revolutionary government. The U.S. labels it and other nations that demand self-determination and sovereignty as “undemocratic." However…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    CHAPTER: The Ford Foundation and Black Power, Robert L. Allen, 1968
    24 Jul 2024
    The late Robert L. Allen broke down the dialectics of Black elite co-option and counter-revolution. Hello, Kamala.
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    War, Genocide and Coups: Biden/Harris and The Irreversible Crisis of Neoliberal Fake Democracy
    24 Jul 2024
    The Imperialist chickens have come home to roost.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us