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

  • Answering to Martin Sostre’s Ghost
    Stephen Wilson
    Answering to Martin Sostre’s Ghost
    01 Feb 2023
    Martin Sostre (1923-2015) was a political prisoner, jailhouse lawyer, and Black anarchist of Puerto Rican descent. After being released from prison, he opened a radical Afro-Asian Book Shop in…
  • Global Africa’s Mission: Expose the CIA’s Shameless, Continuing Crimes
    Mark P. Fancher
    Global Africa’s Mission: Expose the CIA’s Shameless, Continuing Crimes
    01 Feb 2023
    The CIA director recently visited Libya, a state that was destroyed by the US. History shows that the CIA is never up to anything good in Africa.
  • Colonial-Capitalist Fascism and Its Deadly Outcome: The State Murder of Tortuguita in Atlanta and Tyre Nichols in Memphis Are Inextricably Linked
    Black Alliance for Peace Atlanta City-Wide Alliance
    Colonial-Capitalist Fascism and Its Deadly Outcome: The State Murder of Tortuguita in Atlanta and Tyre Nichols in Memphis Are Inextricably Linked
    01 Feb 2023
    All acts of police violence in the US are linked to the colonial capitalist state.
  • Closing Ceremony of the A-APRP Party Congress in Guinea-Bissau
    All African Peoples Revolutionary Party
    Closing Ceremony of the A-APRP Party Congress in Guinea-Bissau
    01 Feb 2023
    The First Historical Congress of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party marked a significant moment in the Pan-African Revolution.
  • Afghanistan News Update #16
    Black Alliance For Peace
    Afghanistan News Update #16
    01 Feb 2023
    The latest Black Alliance for Peace Afghanistan update presents an interview with a specialist in women's movements and legal reform in Afghanistan and links on other news sources.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us