2011 DebtTheFirst5000Years
- (Graeber, 2011) ⇒ David Graeber. (2011). “Debt: The First 5000 Years.” Melville House. ISBN:1612190987
Subject Headings: Financial Debt, Capitalism, Adam Smith, Credit System, Chinese Economy.
Notes
Cited By
2013
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years
- Graeber analyzes the function of debt in human history. He traces the history of debt from ancient civilizations to our modern-day economic crises, arguing that debt has often driven revolutions and social and political changes.
Quotes
Book Overview
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. The problem with this version of history? There’s not a shred of evidence to support it.
Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that 5,000 years ago, during the beginning of the agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems. It is in this era, Graeber shows, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.
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. Interest rates spiked and the indebted became slaves. 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. 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.
References
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| Author | volume | Date Value | title | type | journal | titleUrl | doi | note | year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 DebtTheFirst5000Years | David Graeber | Debt: The First 5000 Years | 2011 |