Debt

In Debt: The First 5,000 Years, anthropologist David Graeber turns conventional wisdom on its head by arguing that for thousands of years, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—long before the invention of coins or cash. Humans first encountered a society divided into debtors and creditors, Graeber argues, in the very era in which we also first see agrarian empires. In this well-researched and meticulously argued book, 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.