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


  • Papuan protesters Attacked and Arrested for Demanding Pro-Independence Leader’s Release
    Peoples Dispatch Staff
    Papuan Protesters Attacked and Arrested for Demanding Pro-Independence Leader’s Release
    02 Jun 2021
    Victor Yeimo was arrested under charges of treason earlier this month for his role in the anti-racism Papuan protests of 2019.
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 31, 2021
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of May 31, 2021
    02 Jun 2021
    George Floyd Not a Martyr
  • The CIA’s New “Woke” Façade
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    The CIA’s New “Woke” Façade
    02 Jun 2021
    The planet’s premier assassination and regime-change agency is advertising itself as a “woke” workplace populated by young Black, Latina and LGBTQ staffers.
  •  The Politics of Performance
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    The Politics of Performance
    02 Jun 2021
    Performance art has the power to make the future felt in the present.
  •  George Floyd Not a Martyr
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    George Floyd Not a Martyr
    02 Jun 2021
    The effectiveness of the social justice movement should be measured by “what material conditions have actually shifted for Black people” and other vulnerable groups, said Kovie Biakolo
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us