Debt - Updated and Expanded

The First 5,000 Years

By: David Graeber

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Now in audio, 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 the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods - that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.

Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like "guilt", "sin", and "redemption") derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it.

©2014 David Graeber (P)2015 Gildan Media LLC

Critic reviews

"Controversial and thought-provoking, an excellent book." (Booklist)

Fascinating

Expansive and engaging narrative with heaps of information, intriguing conclusions. An intellectual pleasure. I've been recommending it to friends who like big ideas.

Economics for history nerds and wanna-be revolutio

It reads like an enjoyable college course.
Gaeber builds a powerful picture of the history of debt, it's use and abuse, and a human economy that underpins the various credit economies we've experienced through time.

Heavy read.

Lots of very interesting information here. I am not convinced I agree with all his conclusions, but well worth the read.

five star

five star five star five star five star five star five star five star five star five star five star five star 😎 it was very insightful and five star and I love it thank you David Graeber five star

Way more than I was expecting

I reluctantly started this book at the urging of a friend. I expected it to be as interesting as a book called Debt could be, which I assumed was "not very.” It turned out to be up there with Sapiens, Behave, and other books that completely changed my world view.