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Debt: The First 5,000 Years — Updated and Expanded
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Now in paperback, the updated and expanded edition : David Graeber’s “fresh . . . fascinating . . . thought-provoking . . . and exceedingly timely” (Financial Times) history of debt
Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of ...more
Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of ...more
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ebook, 566 pages
Published
December 9th 2014
by Melville House
(first published July 12th 2011)
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Start your review of Debt: The First 5,000 Years — Updated and Expanded

I would call this an interesting but dangerous book. As opposed to other books in which every moment was a learning and enlightening enjoyment this book was exhaustingly tense because I found it to be a very confusing mix of dangerous (but plausible) ideas written in a smart way, and interesting historical or world data. So, I'll start the review with the negative things, and then move onto the positive ones:
- the author seems to have a clear agenda, of attacking capitalism & free market ideas, ...more
- the author seems to have a clear agenda, of attacking capitalism & free market ideas, ...more

It´s so unintentional tragicomedy style that each kid can intuitively understand that there is a logical, inbuilt error in money, credit, and debt. As long as there was real, physical money and a limited amount of it, the system worked, but with more humans came paper and digital money and that made endlessly running central bank printing machines, stock markets, speculations,… possible and here we are.
And the mentioned, clever kid will ask: „How can something artificial and more ideologically ...more
And the mentioned, clever kid will ask: „How can something artificial and more ideologically ...more

Fantastic book. To quote the words of Arundhati Roy: "The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable."
Thanks for helping me see more clearly the true contours of the life we live. I guess I'm accountable now. ...more
Thanks for helping me see more clearly the true contours of the life we live. I guess I'm accountable now. ...more

Back to the Future of Credit
Despite its title this book is really a deconstruction of the idea of money. The economist's idea is that credit (loans, cash advances etc.) arises in a well-developed monetary or 'cash on the barrel head' society which in turn had been an improvement on the previous system of barter.
Not so says Graeber and rather convincingly: credit, or more precisely the ledger of who owes what to whom, is the most primitive form of commerce which is only supplemented by either ba ...more
Despite its title this book is really a deconstruction of the idea of money. The economist's idea is that credit (loans, cash advances etc.) arises in a well-developed monetary or 'cash on the barrel head' society which in turn had been an improvement on the previous system of barter.
Not so says Graeber and rather convincingly: credit, or more precisely the ledger of who owes what to whom, is the most primitive form of commerce which is only supplemented by either ba ...more

Okay that's much better! Thanks for all the reviews
...more

(2020-09-03 Update: RIP David Graeber, your works have been an inspiration, may they continue to inspire... here's one last gem, a discussion between Graeber, Michael Hudson and Guy Standing: https://youtu.be/1rlIXAUGans)
This dream book got me to love the potential of nonfiction. I first read this after my undergrad, and the book’s spirit of social imagination remains transformative. How can we change the world if we cannot even imagine the change? (The negative book reviews describe this book a ...more
This dream book got me to love the potential of nonfiction. I first read this after my undergrad, and the book’s spirit of social imagination remains transformative. How can we change the world if we cannot even imagine the change? (The negative book reviews describe this book a ...more

Jun 17, 2012
Caitlin O'Sullivan
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction
I think of Goodreads stars as the following: 1, shouldn't have been published; 2, terrible; 3, pretty good; 4, really good; 5, everyone should read this (because it's eye-opening, incredibly skillful, and/or beautiful).
Debt is a five-star book.
Graeber's history encompasses not just history, but anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, political science, economics, religious studies, and finance as he details the history and definition of "debt." The conclusions he draws are--especially i ...more
Debt is a five-star book.
Graeber's history encompasses not just history, but anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, political science, economics, religious studies, and finance as he details the history and definition of "debt." The conclusions he draws are--especially i ...more

As I was reading this I couldn’t help thinking how much it reminded me of The Gift by Marcel Mauss. I got halfway through The Gift recently, and even though it is very short, I still got distracted with other things and haven’t finish it yet – which, as the author of this says, makes me a bit like Mauss himself. I will finish it – but almost don’t need to now.
This book is born out of a chance conversation about third-world debt the author had a woman at a party. She felt that paying one’s debts ...more
This book is born out of a chance conversation about third-world debt the author had a woman at a party. She felt that paying one’s debts ...more

As a sociologist, I've been despairing of late at the paucity of imagination and theoretical innovation in social science research. Academics, perhaps because of the need to publish quickly and garner grant money, seem content to only add statistical validation to already established conclusions. Or, a la David Harvey, to regurgitate Marx with minor variation, with a focus solely on the neoliberal period, and in US/Eurocentric fashion.
Debt: The First 5,000 Years redeems the social sciences. Not ...more
Debt: The First 5,000 Years redeems the social sciences. Not ...more

I have read many many books--I am a professor and it is my job to read. This is the only book I would label a "Must Read." It's that simple--everyone must read this book. It blew my mind--figuratively, of course. My area is banking and finance and so I am not unfamiliar with the standard banking story. But Graeber starts way before any other book I've ever read on the subject. By the time you get to modern banking and the bank of England, what you've been told is irrelevant. It's also just very
...more

“As it turns out, we don't "all" have to pay our debts. Only some of us do.”
― David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years

A fascinating exploration of debt, money, barter, and the credit systems used by man for thousands of years. Sure it has biases and like Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a bit too idealistic, but still -- wow -- an amazing read. While most economic books are still battling over the binary capitalism::socialism model, Graeber quietly flips both boats (or if not flips, roc ...more
― David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years

A fascinating exploration of debt, money, barter, and the credit systems used by man for thousands of years. Sure it has biases and like Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a bit too idealistic, but still -- wow -- an amazing read. While most economic books are still battling over the binary capitalism::socialism model, Graeber quietly flips both boats (or if not flips, roc ...more

Sep 23, 2020
Roy Lotz
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
misanthropology,
dismal-science
For a very long time, the intellectual consensus has been that we can no longer ask Great Questions. Increasingly, it’s looking like we have no other choice.
Three years ago, I went on vacation in the north of Spain, to the city of A Coruña. There, perched on the jagged rocks below the Roman lighthouse, I read Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West. The crashing sound of ocean waves just seemed an appropriate accompaniment to Spengler’s grandiose attempt to analyze all of human history.
At it ...more

War justifies coin justifies war.
This is my second Graeber read and it’s clear that he was a towering intellect in not only anthropology but economics and sociology. I scarcely read an author who completely upends how I perceive the modern economy and even the very fabric of society. This book is not really about debt, it’s about looking behind the curtain of the underpinnings of the global economy and exposing it for what it really is: collusion of the state and market to create a communism of ...more
This is my second Graeber read and it’s clear that he was a towering intellect in not only anthropology but economics and sociology. I scarcely read an author who completely upends how I perceive the modern economy and even the very fabric of society. This book is not really about debt, it’s about looking behind the curtain of the underpinnings of the global economy and exposing it for what it really is: collusion of the state and market to create a communism of ...more

I had a difficult time slogging through Debt. It shares a similar problem with Niall Fergeson's completely unreadable "the Ascent of Money:" it mixes in the author's politics and political leanings with history to give everything this weird political sheen (in this case left to Fergeson's right.) In this case, Graeber's book covers more facts than political lecturing but it's bumped several stars for being overt.
However, Debt is a worthy read for anyone interested in the span of history from ear ...more
However, Debt is a worthy read for anyone interested in the span of history from ear ...more

This might be the most important book you read this decade. Graeber asks what the phrase "You have to pay your debts" really means, and his answer involves a looping historical, anthropological, linguistic, and philosophical inquiry into the nature of currency, coinage, and capitalism.
As Graeber notes, the standard economic story of the development of coinage: that bartering diverse goods (potatoes for shoes for sheep for shovels) was so inconvenient that people developed cash to be more efficie ...more
As Graeber notes, the standard economic story of the development of coinage: that bartering diverse goods (potatoes for shoes for sheep for shovels) was so inconvenient that people developed cash to be more efficie ...more

I haven't finished reading yet, and I will try to write a more substantive review of this book once I've had time to wrap my head around the contents, but until such time has come, I would simply propose to consider this book the new answer to Douglas Adams's Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything. If you've ever wondered whether there is a connection between -- to name just a few things -- simple social obligations, the invention of money, slavery, taxation, coinage, the disapp
...more

In a word - brilliant. Just when I thought I understood all the false assumptions in modern economic theory, David Graeber uncovers yet another huge, unfounded assumption that economists discuss as if it's a matter of fact. I clearly remember sitting in my intro to macro class and hearing about how before there was money, people bartered and it was terribly inconvenient, then money was created and saved everybody. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that yet another aspect of our economic theory
...more

A superb book. Throughout reading this book I felt like little epiphanies were going off in my head as Graeber presented new information or new analyses that I hadn't considered before. Graeber manages to expose the violence, coercion and inequality that has become sublimated in the bland language of credit and debt so that most of us see debt as an impersonal, objective and moral issue. He opens with an anecdote that inspired him to write this book in the first place, describing attending a par
...more

May 15, 2019
☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favorites
A culturally relevant account of how debt came to be the new red.
TBA
TBA

If you think capitalism and modern economics are the worst thing to ever happen to the world, this will be a great feel good read for you. If you like your books to be robustly argued with appropriate credence given to opposing arguments, I suggest you pick up something else. Graeber seems to consider those who disagree with him as either naive, blindsided by economic theory, or simply greedy.
It's a little hard to pin down exactly what Graeber wants to argue; his preferred method of exposition ...more
It's a little hard to pin down exactly what Graeber wants to argue; his preferred method of exposition ...more

Nov 03, 2021
Katia N
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
economics-and-history
I meant to read "Debt" for a while, but so happens I've listened to this book. So my takes are very preliminary. I still need to read it properly. I've enjoyed Graeber's anthropological perspective, erudition and the fluency of his arguments. Also I've never read anything serious by a self-acknowledged anarchist. He has made a lot if interesting original points that go against the grail of the well-defined narrative of social and economic history. And it is refreshing to say the least.
My main ta ...more
My main ta ...more

This is a very thought-provoking analysis of the relationship between morality, debt, property, and money. Essentially, the author explores, through history and anthropology, the tension between the common beliefs that one should always pay one's debts and that to make a profit on lending money is wrong. In particular, this issue bears on our political unwillingness to change a situation where the vast majority of Americans will spend their lives paying off debts to a tiny minority who enjoy lud
...more

One of the great powers of anthropology lies in its potential to denaturalise and remystify taken-for-granted elementary aspects of daily life. Debt is certainly one of these omnipresent elements, especially in times where real wages have stagnated while productivity and inflation continues soaring.
Despite this, debt, as a disputed concept, is not new; in fact, it's older than money. In the chapter I enjoyed the most titled 'the myth of barter', Graeber shows how the conventional barter-money-d ...more
Despite this, debt, as a disputed concept, is not new; in fact, it's older than money. In the chapter I enjoyed the most titled 'the myth of barter', Graeber shows how the conventional barter-money-d ...more

It's not often that one reads a book on political economy that is as thrilling to read as a detective novel, but Graeber's Debt is just such a book. Perhaps because he is an anthropologist, not an economist, he is able to take on a seemingly boring and pedestrian topic, and write an eye-opening book which addresses the origins of the current crisis of capitalism.
Graeber's theme is a simple one. What makes us human is our relationship with others, starting with our mothers, then family and then t ...more
Graeber's theme is a simple one. What makes us human is our relationship with others, starting with our mothers, then family and then t ...more

Hadn't read a book on banking or economics since college in the 1980s and The Money Lenders. Mostly this is because, although a life-long fan of Gothic literature and horror movies, nothing has ever scared me more than The Money Lenders, a truly terrifying read. The international banking coalition is even more frightening than the so-called terrorists or the super powers and their nuclear stockpiles! Unlike a political edifice, subject often to voting, or revolution, or a coup, banking and the b
...more

This book led me to re-think some of the fundamental aspects I have always thought our modern society is based upon: the basis of the current monetary system, market economies, the illusion of barter markets and most fundamentaly the way that debt is intertwined into the fabric of human interaction.
Overall this is pleasant read, as an overview of market and monetary history from an anthropological perspective. The book starts to lag in sections where the author tries to apply his own solutions t ...more
Overall this is pleasant read, as an overview of market and monetary history from an anthropological perspective. The book starts to lag in sections where the author tries to apply his own solutions t ...more

This starts off OK, debunking the money-replacing-barter story from the fundamentals of economics. But the book drifts along in too many directions and the author seems to take pleasure in saying shocking things for the sake of it. People are giving this book five-star reviews while admitting they didn't understand it. ??? If readers want a clear critique of global economic policies I would point them to the works of Ha-Joon Chang:
23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism
"Debt" does do ...more

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism
"Debt" does do ...more

Jul 18, 2021
Carlos Martinez
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
economics
An extremely interesting book. Not entirely convinced by its basic premise, but even so there is a huge quantity of fascinating ideas to engage with here. Really it was the wrong thing to read concurrently with Capital Volume 2, because I can only seriously study one book at a time, and Debt warrants serious study. Will need to go back to it in a few weeks, take notes, read a few reviews, talk to people about it, and then write a proper review.

Sep 10, 2014
KatieMc
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
residents of paradise island
Shelves:
librarybook
First half 5 stars, second half 3 stars.
When I was in the 5th grade, we had a social studies unit centered around a book called Life On Paradise Island. It was a cartoonish book that told the tale of how a modern economy is developed. It started with the islanders trading coconuts for fish. Of course things got complicated when the coconut guy didn't need or want fish, but he wanted a hut built and the hut builder wanted something else. Eventually a stone currency was developed and it made trad ...more
When I was in the 5th grade, we had a social studies unit centered around a book called Life On Paradise Island. It was a cartoonish book that told the tale of how a modern economy is developed. It started with the islanders trading coconuts for fish. Of course things got complicated when the coconut guy didn't need or want fish, but he wanted a hut built and the hut builder wanted something else. Eventually a stone currency was developed and it made trad ...more
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Non Fiction Book ...: Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Jan 3 - Mar 3, 2022) | 41 | 48 | Feb 27, 2022 01:20PM | |
Oldtimer - Klasik...: David Graeber - Borç: İlk 5000 Yıl | 20 | 80 | Jul 23, 2021 11:05PM | |
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David Rolfe Graeber was an American anthropologist and anarchist.
On June 15, 2007, Graeber accepted the offer of a lectureship in the anthropology department at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he currently holds the title of Reader in Social Anthropology.
He was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his t ...more
On June 15, 2007, Graeber accepted the offer of a lectureship in the anthropology department at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he currently holds the title of Reader in Social Anthropology.
He was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his t ...more
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“Freuchen tells how one day, after coming home hungry from an unsuccessful walrus-hunting expedition, he found one of the successful hunters dropping off several hundred pounds of meat. He thanked him profusely. The man objected indignantly:
... The refusal to calculate credits and debits can be found throughout the anthropological literature on egalitarian hunting societies. Rather than seeing himself as human because he could make economic calculations, the hunter insisted that being truly human meant refusing to make such calculations, refusing to measure or remember who had given what to whom, for the precise reason that doing so would inevitably create a world where we began "comparing power with power, measuring, calculating" and reducing each other to slaves or dogs through debt. It's not that he, like untold millions of similar egalitarian spirits throughout history, was unaware that humans have a propensity to calculate. If he wasn't aware of it, he could not have said what he did. Of course we have a propensity to calculate. We have all sorts of propensities. In any real-life situation, we have propensities that drive us in several different contradictory directions simultaneously. No one is more real than any other. The real question is which we take as the foundation of our humanity, and therefore, make the basis of our civilization.”
—
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"Up in our country we are human!" said the hunter. "And since we are human we help each other. We don't like to hear anybody say thanks for that. What I get today you may get tomorrow. Up here we say that by gifts one makes slaves and by whips one makes dogs.
... The refusal to calculate credits and debits can be found throughout the anthropological literature on egalitarian hunting societies. Rather than seeing himself as human because he could make economic calculations, the hunter insisted that being truly human meant refusing to make such calculations, refusing to measure or remember who had given what to whom, for the precise reason that doing so would inevitably create a world where we began "comparing power with power, measuring, calculating" and reducing each other to slaves or dogs through debt. It's not that he, like untold millions of similar egalitarian spirits throughout history, was unaware that humans have a propensity to calculate. If he wasn't aware of it, he could not have said what he did. Of course we have a propensity to calculate. We have all sorts of propensities. In any real-life situation, we have propensities that drive us in several different contradictory directions simultaneously. No one is more real than any other. The real question is which we take as the foundation of our humanity, and therefore, make the basis of our civilization.”
“If history shows anything, it is that there's no better way to justify relations founded on violence, to make such relations seem moral, than by reframing them in the language of debt—above all, because it immediately makes it seem that it's the victim who's doing something wrong.”
—
85 likes
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