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


  • Hanna Eid
    Sovereignty and Strategic Depth
    08 Jul 2026
    The U.S. and Israel treat negotiations as a weapon to destabilize and disarm the region, but Iran and Hezbollah have shown that real sovereignty requires connecting every front in a unified anti-…
  • Abayomi Azikiwe
    Detroit People’s Tribunal Takes Mask off ICE
    08 Jul 2026
    Activists gathered from various areas of Michigan to report on the excesses and brutality of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and local police, which…
  • Booker Omole
    Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s Legacy Will Outlive US Imperialism
    08 Jul 2026
    Statement on the Funeral of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei by the General Secretary, Booker Omole, Communist Party Marxist Kenya.
  • black loyalists
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist , Dr. Gerald Horne
    “The Farce of You Lie”: Gerald Horne Discusses the Founding of the United States
    03 Jul 2026
    Gerald Horne joins editor Margaret Kimberley in analyzing his 2014 book,  “The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America.”
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio July 3, 2026
    03 Jul 2026
    In this week’s segment, we hear analysis of the situation in Cuba, which is struggling under a U.S. siege meant to undo the revolution. Yet Cuba is resolute in its determination to enact its own…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us