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


  • The Global Anti-Eritrea-Ethiopia Agenda
    Amanuel Biedemariam 
    The Global Anti-Eritrea-Ethiopia Agenda
    07 Apr 2021
    It is not up to the US to demand or dictate that Eritrea withdraw from Ethiopia -- it is Ethiopia’s and only Ethiopia’s call to make.  
  • Still Unsolved: the Great Crime that Triggered the 1994 Rwandan Genocide
    Jeremy Kuzmarov
    Still Unsolved: the Great Crime that Triggered the 1994 Rwandan Genocide
    07 Apr 2021
    After 27 years, strong evidence implicates Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame and the CIA in the downing of Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana’s airplane.
  • “Hotel Rwanda” Hero Kidnapped: Another Victim of Rwanda’s Grinding Machine
    keith harmon snow
    “Hotel Rwanda” Hero Kidnapped: Another Victim of Rwanda’s Grinding Machine
    07 Apr 2021
    Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame is a mass murdered enabled by the US, and the Rwanda genocide story told by western governments and their media is the exact opposite of the truth.
  • Yellow Peril and Red Scare: Forum on Anti-Asian Racism
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    Yellow Peril and Red Scare: Forum on Anti-Asian Racism
    06 Apr 2021
    Anti-Asian racism is on the rise in the United States and the West and has been discussed most frequently in the aftermath of the murder of six women of Asian descent in Atlanta on March 16th.
  • The Left Lens Presents the Left Voice in Latin America w/Camila Escalante
    Danny Haiphong , BAR contributor
    The Left Lens Presents the Left Voice in Latin America w/Camila Escalante
    06 Apr 2021
    Black Agenda
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us