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


  •  Mumia on 2020 Elections
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Mumia on 2020 Elections
    03 Nov 2020
    The polls were wrong in 2016, and they may be wrong this year, too, said Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, in an essay for Prison Radio.
  • Anti-Queerness in Africa is Complicated
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Anti-Queerness in Africa is Complicated
    03 Nov 2020
    Thirty African countries have laws against homosexuality, but debate still rages over whether homophobia is endemic to Africa or a European import.
  • Anti-Black Racism is Everywhere in the Americas
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Anti-Black Racism is Everywhere in the Americas
    03 Nov 2020
    Anti-Black racism is not limited to the US, said Jomaira Salas, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Rutgers University and author of an article on Black Latina girls.
  •  Police “Reform” = Counterinsurgency
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Police “Reform” = Counterinsurgency
    03 Nov 2020
    Attempts to “reform” the police through body cameras, so-called “community” policing and other such measures “all presume the continued presence of police” in oppressed communities, said Dy
  • The Billionaires’ Duopoly Wins on Tuesday
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    The Billionaires’ Duopoly Wins on Tuesday
    29 Oct 2020
    Allegiance to the Democratic half of the duopoly – whether active or passive – is still allegiance to corporate rule, not a strategy for transformative change.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us