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


  •  Two US Parties, One Imperial Policy
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Two US Parties, One Imperial Policy
    02 Mar 2021
    “We should not expect any fundamental alteration” in US foreign policy under President Joe Biden, said Ajamu Baraka, national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace, at a joint
  •  “Fascism” Invoked When Bad Things Happen to White People
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    “Fascism” Invoked When Bad Things Happen to White People
    02 Mar 2021
    The question of fascism emerges “when one sector of the ruling class introduces measures that bear some resemblance to the colonial condition that Africans and other oppressed peoples live with all
  •  Abu Jamal Salutes “Madam Cicely Tyson”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Abu Jamal Salutes “Madam Cicely Tyson"
    01 Mar 2021
  •  Jamal Journal: Mumia Says He Has Covid
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Jamal Journal: Mumia Says He Has Covid
    01 Mar 2021
    The nation’s best known political prisoner told the publisher of The Jamal Journal “that he believes he has Covid.
  • Freedom Rider: No Human Rights in Texas
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: No Human Rights in Texas
    24 Feb 2021
    The people of Texas suffer unnecessarily from bad weather because their state puts oligarchs first and does not recognize the human right to health and safety.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us