Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Paperback) by David Graeber

from HadriantheBlind

Excellent book. A long-term, anthropological study of the history and the phenomenon of debt itself, and future implications. There's a lot going on here, and I'm too muddle to organize my thoughts and reactions into sentences yet, just transcribing my mental notes.Debt as a social phenomenon pre...

from xiaomarlo

This is the densest book I've read in a long while. I'm a notoriously slow reader of non-fiction books of this sort, but I pushed my way through it, and there's lots of good things to glean from this book. Super interesting. It especially made me think of slavery in a new way. I also didn't know ...

from jcbrunner

I very much enjoyed reading this book. The author takes one along on a fascinating journey into the history of debt. One of the key findings of the book is that anthropology shows that the barter narrative found in most economics textbooks is wrong. Societies everywhere run on a tally system and ...

from rivkat

I got this book because of reviews which emphasize that Graeber starts with a fundamental challenge to the idea that you have to pay your debts. Why? How were those debts acquired and why are they "yours"? What are the alternatives to paying your debts? Especially when the real claim is "countrie...

from Daniel.Estes

David Graeber's Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a broad and sometimes tedious stroll through human history with a focus on personal economic relationships, exchange and indebtedness. Basically, it's less about currency and more about anthropology. Graeber's premise is a startling one: Contrary to ...