Before there was money, there was debt

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 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.

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.

Download File Size:8.41 MB

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