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


  • Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Time to Sharpen Our Weapons and Wits
    27 May 2026
    Six years ago, George Floyd was murdered by police. The reaction was swift - the streets erupted and demands to defund the police spread across the country. Yet, the response from Democrats was…
  • Hanna Eid
    Imperialism and the Arab World: An Interview with Tara Alami
    27 May 2026
    Compliant Arab regimes spent decades spreading anti-Iran propaganda, but the current assault on Iran is shattering those lies.
  • Joshua Reaves Charmelus
    Unity and Sovereignty: Cuba’s True ‘Threat’ To US Interests
    27 May 2026
    The U.S. indicted 94-year-old Raúl Castro not out of concern for the people of Cuba or the U.S., but because six decades of sanctions have failed to destroy Cuba's revolutionary continuity.
  • Gary Wilson
    Musk’s A.I. Power Plant Exposes Capitalism’s Data-Center Crisis
    27 May 2026
    A Black community in Tennessee is living with the environmental impact of a data center brought to them by Elon Musk and conniving elected officials.
  • Elías Jaua , Federico Fuentes
    Former Chávez VP: Venezuela Needs a New ‘struggle for liberation’
    27 May 2026
    A former vice-president who served with Hugo Chávez provides analysis on what he calls neo-colonial control and coercion the U.S. is exercising against Venezuela.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us