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


  • Nicaragua in the Multipolar World
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Nicaragua in the Multipolar World
    12 Jan 2022
    The U.S. regime change effort in Nicaragua has failed. The people are determined to assert their rights of self-determination and the U.S. is not the only player on the world stage.
  • Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Policies of the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination in Ukraine
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Policies of the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination in Ukraine
    12 Jan 2022
    The Ukraine crisis began in Washington, not in Moscow. The Obama/Biden regime change plot against an elected Ukrainian president reverberates to this day.
  • EXCERPT: Black Bourgeoisie
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EXCERPT: Black Bourgeoisie
    12 Jan 2022
    Revisiting E. Franklin Frazier’s classic sociological study Black Bourgeoisie should help us understand the misleaders of today’s Black superelite.
  • Pentagon, U.S. Department of Defense
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    How will we pay for it?
    12 Jan 2022
                                                           …
  • Twitter Bans African Anti-Imperialists
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Twitter Bans African Anti-Imperialists
    12 Jan 2022
    Many liberals and even some leftists welcomed the removal of Twitter accounts for Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, Richard Spencer, Donald Trump, and other right-wing ideologues, but it was clear
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us