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


  • AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #46
    Black Alliance for Peace US Out of Africa Network
    AFRICOM Watch Bulletin #46
    26 Apr 2023
    The impact of the U.S./NATO destruction of the Libyan state is still being felt. AFRICOM is still the great destabilizer of the entire African continent.
  • Wuambushu, An Ignoble and Disgusting Propaganda Operation Under the Sun of Mayotte
    Initiative Communiste
    Wuambushu, An Ignoble and Disgusting Propaganda Operation Under the Sun of Mayotte
    26 Apr 2023
    Mayotte is a French overseas territory island located in the Indian Ocean between Mozambique and Madagascar. It is also near the Comoros Islands, whose citizens travel to Mayotte as undocumented…
  • Oregon Domestic Terrorism Law Targets the Far Right: Here’s How It’ll Backfire
    Natasha Lennard
    Oregon Domestic Terrorism Law Targets the Far Right: Here’s How It’ll Backfire
    26 Apr 2023
    The Democrat-sponsored bill has broad bipartisan support, but civil rights groups say it’s open to misuse against climate and racial justice activists.
  • The Toxic Legacy of U.S. Foreign Policy in Vieques, Puerto Rico
    Monisha Rios
    The Toxic Legacy of U.S. Foreign Policy in Vieques, Puerto Rico
    26 Apr 2023
    The women of Vieques, an island off the east coast of Puerto Rico, have been on the front lines of the generations-long struggle for peace and justice to end the havoc wrought by U.S. foreign policy…
  • Russia and China Win Big, US Hegemony Dies w/ Garland Nixon, Dr. Wilmer Leon, Danny Haiphong, Margaret Kimberley
    Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley
    Russia and China Win Big, US Hegemony Dies w/ Garland Nixon, Dr. Wilmer Leon, Danny Haiphong, Margaret Kimberley
    21 Apr 2023
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us