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


  • Why Cornel West’s Tenure Fight Matters
    Robin D.G. Kelley
    Why Cornel West’s Tenure Fight Matters
    10 Mar 2021
    Harvard’s administrators completely miss the point of tenure, which was created to allow scholars to do their work, speak their truth, and stand up for something without risking their jobs.
  • Movements Not Saviors: Lessons from Bobi Wine’s Tweet for Juan Guaido
    Netfa Freeman and Jemima Pierre
    Movements Not Saviors: Lessons from Bobi Wine’s Tweet for Juan Guaido
    10 Mar 2021
    Bobi Wine’s flirtation with US Venezuelan puppet Juan Guaido indicates that the Ugandan is also auditioning for the imperial puppet job.
  • Letters from Our Readers
    Jahan Choudhry, BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers
    10 Mar 2021
    This week Pan Africanism and the Black Panther Party were on your minds.
  • BAR Book Forum: Amy Cooper’s “State of Health”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Amy Cooper’s “State of Health”
    10 Mar 2021
    Unlike the US and other corporate-ruled countries, activists inside and outside of government collaborated to bring about radical social change in Venezuela.
  • BAR Book Forum: Rinaldo Walcott’s “The Long Emancipation”
    Rinaldo Walcott
    BAR Book Forum: Rinaldo Walcott’s “The Long Emancipation”
    10 Mar 2021
    “Black freedom” as a claim, as a possibility, challenges us to imagine and to produce new modes of life.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us