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


  • The American Empire is a Sore Loser That Will Get Us All Killed
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The American Empire is a Sore Loser That Will Get Us All Killed
    15 Feb 2023
    The US is like a drug dealer getting high on his own supply. It believes in its hype of exceptionalism and endangers the world when it is thwarted in any way.
  • Ethiopia: The Tigray Famine Narrative Was a Total Fabrication
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ethiopia: The Tigray Famine Narrative Was a Total Fabrication
    15 Feb 2023
    The narrative of famine in the Tigray region of Ethiopia was repeated uncritically by the media and was amplified by people who were on board with the U.S. regime change plot against the…
  • “Our” Congressmen and Mayors obey Multibillionaires  (cops are just their henchmen) Defunding The People
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    “Our” Congressmen and Mayors obey Multibillionaires (cops are just their henchmen) Defunding The People
    15 Feb 2023
                                                         
  • Black Agenda Report Book Forum: An Interview with Garrett Felber
    Garrett Felber , Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    Black Agenda Report Book Forum: An Interview with Garrett Felber
    15 Feb 2023
    To commemorate 100 years since the birth of former political prisoner Martin Sostre, the Black Agenda Report Book Forum interviews Garrett Felber, A Visiting Fellow at Yale University who is…
  • The Caribbean Connection | Jeffrey Epstein, JP Morgan Chase and How Powerful Banks Escape Accountability
    Thad Baltimore
    The Caribbean Connection | Jeffrey Epstein, JP Morgan Chase and How Powerful Banks Escape Accountability
    15 Feb 2023
    Banks operate with impunity and so they act accordingly.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us