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


  • BAR Book Forum: Interview with Adam Bledsoe
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Interview with Adam Bledsoe
    04 Jan 2023
    This week’s featured scholar is Adam Bledsoe. Bledsoe is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota. His article “Neither Ground on Which to Stand, nor Self to Defend: The…
  • Abolitionist Teaching: An Interview with Sarah Abdelaziz
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor , Sarah Abdelaziz
    Abolitionist Teaching: An Interview with Sarah Abdelaziz
    04 Jan 2023
    "Abolition" is the word of the moment. But what does it mean? How should it be taught? Robert Sirvent and Sarah Abdelaziz discuss.
  • The Hopeful Legacy of Roberto Clemente
    Gus Griffin
    The Hopeful Legacy of Roberto Clemente
    04 Jan 2023
    Roberto Clemente was one of the all-time great baseball players and one of the best in a long line of Afro-Latinos. He also acted in solidarity with people around the world, which ironically led to…
  • Israel Got the Middle Finger at the World Cup
    Nizar K. Visram
    Israel Got the Middle Finger at the World Cup
    04 Jan 2023
    The U.S. brokered Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and some Persian Gul Arab regimes. But Israel discovered at the recent World Cup that the Arab masses are still in solidarity…
  • We Condemn the Raid on the Headquarters of the Haitian-Dominican Women's Movement
    Socialist Movement of Workers of the Dominican Republic
    We Condemn the Raid on the Headquarters of the Haitian-Dominican Women's Movement
    04 Jan 2023
    The Dominican Republic continues to abuse its Haitian descended population. The Haitian-Dominican Women's Movement (MUDHA) was recently raided by government agents.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us