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  • Debt - Updated and Expanded

  • The First 5,000 Years
  • By: David Graeber
  • Narrated by: Grover Gardner
  • Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (570 ratings)
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Debt - Updated and Expanded

By: David Graeber
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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Summary

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
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

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

What listeners say about Debt - Updated and Expanded

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

A Gigantic, Frustrating, Maddening Disappointment.

Don't be deceived. This book is essentially about capitalism. Now, most people have one of three views re capitalism - they think it works, they think its evil or they don't think about it at all. A few, like me, are agnostic and study it to form a firmer opinion. Graeber has been described as the intellectual centre of the "anti-globalisation" movement so I thought...

"Great. This is the book that will explain to me the rationale behind the movement"

If this is it's intellectual underpinning the movement is in big trouble.

Graeber starts by stating he aims to answer the question "Why do people consider it a moral duty to pay ones debts?" I was intrigued. The problem is he never does answer it. Instead he gives us a very selective history of money, all the while clearly attempting to form some kind of thesis to explain why all debt is in fact a form of violent slavery (yes, seriously) - which never really comes together at all.

Sure he heads in the "progressive" directions you'd expect but never really justifies his arguments or opinions. Instead what he does, over and over, is to say something like "the most likely explanation is..." He then gives us his favoured view without explaining what the alternatives are, let alone why they're "less likely". You don't notice this technique at first but once you heard it in five or six different variations it becomes both obvious and frustrating.

Then after hours and hours and hours of this, when you get to the final chapter and are hoping, beyond hope, for him to somehow pull everything together again you're disappointed. The final chapter is what I can only describe as a rant - in which he makes self-contradictory, unsupported statements of why capitalism in general and the US in particular is both evil and bound to fail. If it wasn't so frustrating it would be laughable. Honestly it comes across more as the raving of a conspiracy theorist than a respectable academic.

I wanted to hear a cogent, reasoned exposition of the "anti-globalisation" movements position. Instead I got a subjective, emotive tract with enough holes in it's argument that it would make a decent colander.

If you're already an anti-capitalist activist buy this book - you'll be shouting "right on" until you're hoarse. Every one else - steer well clear.

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25 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Mr
  • 13-11-19

Hmmmmmmm. Interesting.

I'm not normally a reader of books that are praised by radical leftist websites, but was recommended to try this one by an economic commentator I have found interesting on many other issues. I am glad I did, this is one of those texts where almost every page contains some statement I didn't agree with, but in disagreeing, I was always required to think carefully about *why* I didn't agree.

There are a whole host of things that cause one to raise an eyebrow. Such as that the claim that the basis of national debt is always military power, which appears to disregard all the nations with little or no military power who are consistently able to run up huge debts. Or the author's tendency to accept any historical text as literally true, even when they seem more than a little overblown.

The author also suffers from a common disease of the specialist historian in seeing every phenomenon as explainable only by his own speciality. But I suppose it would be unfair to critique a historian for looking to find the relevance of his own subject, and applying the lens of different concepts of debt to human history, produces some fascinating new perspectives to consider.

This book is constantly making you think carefully about things you haven't thought carefully about before, and so I am giving it a positive review despite its authors obvious ideological fetters. Almost everything in this very dense work is well argued and well thought through, and is worth the effort of getting through it even when you come out the other side doubting that anything in it is correct.

The narrator is also good.

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14 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Looking for economic and social clarity?

This is an extremely detailed account of our economic and social institutions over the centuries. If you've ever wondered what the alternative is to the 'market paradigm' is, then you should read this

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11 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Stopped before the end

This book contains some interesting info about various cultures, at various points in history.

But the author’s narrative is misleading and revisionist.

For example, in one chapter he describes communism simply as the notion of sharing with others. In another chapter, he attempts to conflate capitalism with corruption, defining capitalism as when a merchant tries to influence governments to put limitations on the market in the capitalists favour.

For such a long and arduous book, I’d really expect more substance than this book offers.

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

The end of the myth of barter

Amazing book! Graeber is an encyclopedia and a brilliant mind. What a journey! Get prepared to be challenged if you were taught neo classic economics. The world as you know it is not what it seems to be.
Now, this book is about anthropology and it is written by an academic. Meaning : it is long and sometimes it can be confusing. For those who really don't have enough time I recommend them to start with the chapter on Axial age. I can guarantee that they will be gobsmacked by the erudition and the cleverness of Graeber.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely everyone needs to read this book!

This book introduces a fundamental and new way of thinking about our culture and civilisation. It questions the basis for many old assumptions regarding the evolution of civilisation and offers piles of evidence to critique existing narratives. I learned so much from this book and it has changed the entire way I think about history, culture and values.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

An interesting anthropological take on debt

This book is definitely worth a listen. The book itself is informative and original in its opinions and accounts and offers interesting insights into the history of human exchange and debt from the perspective of an anthropologist and left intellectual - and makes it an exciting read, nonetheless; quite a feat! The historical sweep is very alluring in the seemingly unifying concept of debt as a feature of temporally distant societies and peoples and modern capitalism, but with different social meanings and consequences. I found some of the later sections superficial after reading with excitement the earlier sections. I don't think David Graeber has succeeded ultimately in giving an account of modern capitalism that offers much in the way of an alternative for social movements wishing to change it. He also avoids going to areas where, I think, if he did, his arguments might start to look a little shaky including his view of the concept of "the economy" (he daren't engage with the marxist concept of mode of production), class in general and the consequences (or not) of the falling rate of profit on the current crisis in capitalism. It might seem arcane and tiresomely marxist to raise things like this but the author really is making a valiant attempt to supplant a dominant critique that has much going for it in its explanatory power (the marxist tradition and thinkers) with something else (an human anthropological critique). I think he adds quite a lot original thinking and illuminating perspectives but, perhaps, should have talked to and about other critiques a little more. Having said that I really enjoyed the wonderfully narrated book and will read the paper book at some point. Perhaps he'll deal with these issues in follow up books which I would definitely read.

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    5 out of 5 stars

A great work by a great man.

A great work by a great man. The jokes are good also. Worth revisiting time and again.

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    2 out of 5 stars

Ruined by author's communist pre-conceptions.

The book has plenty of historic anecdotes which are informative and interesting. It also talks about the philosophy and morality of debt which is similarly interesting.

On the negative side, I was expecting a deep dive into the economic theory of debt, however, because the author is essentially a communist, his critiques of capitalism are just wildly ignorant and he is not capable of truly analysing debt within a free-market economy.

It is annoying you can't argue directly with an audiobook, otherwise I would being having a blazing row instead of writing a review.... One line for example:

'I have already pointed out that modern money is based on debt and that governments borrow money in order to finance wars. This is just as true today as it was in the age of Prince Philip II'.

In Japan, the World's most indebted nation, they spend 1% of GDP on military expenditures, so saying the whole basis for modern money, and debt, is war is just... literally... crazy. Things like that annoyed me and hence 2 stars.

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Remarkably insightful

This is an extraordinary piece of work in terms of its depth and it's audacity in challenging currently held beliefs. I was positively thrilled by the panoramic scale of the book drawing on religion, morality, economics and sociology to provide a tour de force. This is the exact opposite of a boring book about money. A book that introduces the term Militaristic Capitalism and explains the relationship between concubines and interest is highly recommended by me.

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