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: Debra Thompson’s, “The Long Road Home”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Debra Thompson’s, “The Long Road Home”
    07 Sep 2022
    This week’s featured author is Debra Thompson. Thompson is the Canada Research Chair in Racial Inequality in Democratic Societies and Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University.…
  • Jackson Water Crisis: A legacy of environmental racism? and Justice for Jackson: Help Us Fix Jackson's Water System
    Chi Chi Izundu, Mohamed Madi, Chelsea Bailey , Cooperation Jackson
    Jackson Water Crisis: A legacy of environmental racism? and Justice for Jackson: Help Us Fix Jackson's Water System
    07 Sep 2022
    The city of Jackson is suffering from years of neglect by the state of Mississippi. Residents of the majority Black city need a new water system, but a legacy of racism and antipathy towards their…
  • Laundering Black Rage
    Too Black
    Laundering Black Rage
    07 Sep 2022
    Rage is a natural human emotion that is denied to Black people. Black rage is dangerous and is washed away, laundered, as if it were an ill-gotten gain. Too Black explains in the first part of a two-…
  • accra reparation
    Mark P. Fancher
    Reparations by Appeal to Conscience or by Demands from a Position of Strength?
    07 Sep 2022
    The pursuit of justice and reparations for African people has been constant. The question of whether to pursue appeals for concessions or active struggles for power, has not been resolved.
  • Fact Find Mission to Donbass Part 3
    John Parker
    Fact Find Mission to Donbass Part 3
    07 Sep 2022
    John Parker is the Socialist Unity Party candidate for U.S. Senate in California on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. This is Part 3 of his report on his fact-finding trip observing …
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us