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


  • Biden holding a Ukrainian refugee child
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Racist Asylum and Immigration Policy in the U.S. and Canada
    06 Mar 2024
    Fears of an “invasion” at the border are nothing more than white supremacy being openly expressed. It could not be otherwise in a settler colony created by migration from Europe. To millions of…
  • Pierre Hudicourt
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SPEECH: Haiti’s Appeal to Americans, Pierre Hudicourt, 1922
    06 Mar 2024
    In 1922 legal scholar Pierre Hudicourt argued that the US military occupation of Haiti was illegal. As Haiti enters the 20th year of another illegal occupation, Hudicourt’s analysis resonates…
  • What is Anti-racism
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    “What Is Anti-Racism? And Why It Means Anti-Capitalism,” A Book Review
    06 Mar 2024
    Arun Kundnani details the histories of liberal and radical anti-racism and argues that anti-racism ultimately means anti-capitalism.
  • Collage of Black politicians
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    War criminal Bassackwards Tribe
    06 Mar 2024
    "War criminal Bassackwards Tribe" is the latest from our Poet-in-Residence.
  • CARICOM officials arrive in Haiti
    Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
    Why is CARICOM Betraying Haiti on Behalf of the U.S.?
    06 Mar 2024
    The impending occupation of Haiti by Kenya is supported by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) with direct assistance in the mission coming from CARICOM states. The question is, why?
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us