Cover of Debt

Debt

by David Graeber

4.1
(124 ratings)
534 pages2011Melville House PublishingISBN 9781933633862

About this book

The author shows that before there was money, there was debt. For 5,000 years humans have lived in societies divided into debtors and creditors. For 5,000 years debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates, laws and religions. The words “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption” come from ancient debates about debt. These terms and the ideas of debt shape our most basic ideas of right and wrong.

Publication Details

Publisher
Melville House Publishing
Published
2011
Pages
534
ISBN
9781933633862
Language
en

About David Graeber

**David Rolfe Graeber** (/ˈɡreɪbər/; February 12, 1961 – September 2, 2020) was an American anthropologist, anarchist activist and author known for his books *Debt: The First 5000 Years* (2011), *The Utopia of Rules* (2015) and *Bullshit Jobs: A Theory* (2018). He was a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics. As an assistant professor and associate professor of anthropology at Yale from 1998–2007 he specialised in theories of value and social theory. The university's decision not to rehire him when he would otherwise have become eligible for tenure sparked an academic controversy, and a petition with more than 4,500 signatures. He went on to become, from 2007–13, Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. ([Source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Graeber))

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