The author interprets the Crisis of 2008 as a turning point in the perspective of global economics, and invites us to take a journey with him into the historical past, back to the sources of the establishment of credit systems in general. At the same time, the book can be taken as a transcription of an accessible and interesting lecture whose theme is at the interstices between economics, anthropology, and sociology. It is an investigation into the evolution of money by a professional anthropologist who has made a significant contribution to the contemporary understanding of humanity it is also the intellectual credo of a scholar speaking out against capitalism – and indeed one who stands at the very origins of the Occupy movement. The book explains why debt is the foundation of world economic structures and how it is used as an instrument of political manipulation.ĭavid Graeber’s book Debt: The First 5,000 Years can be looked at from several different angles.

Social problems.David Graeber’s research tells an alternative history of the development of culture and society. H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions Debt: The First 5,000 Years is a fascinating chronicle of this little known history-as well as how it has defined human history, and what it means for the credit crisis of the present day and the future of our economy. And the system perpetuated itself with tremendously violent consequences, with only the rare intervention of kings and churches keeping the system from spiraling out of control. Interest rates spiked and the indebted became slaves. With the passage of time, however, virtual credit money was replaced by gold and silver coins-and the system as a whole began to decline. It is in this era, Graeber shows, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.

He shows that 5,000 years ago, during the beginning of the agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems.

Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it. Every economics textbook says the same thing: Money was invented to replace onerous and complicated barter systems-to relieve ancient people from having to haul their goods to market.

History of debt david graeber