About the author
David Graeber was an American anthropologist and political activist whose work challenged familiar accounts of debt, bureaucracy, labor, hierarchy, and the origins of social institutions. He brought academic evidence into arguments written for readers well outside the university.
Debt follows obligation across five millennia and disputes the idea that barter simply preceded money. The Dawn of Everything, written with David Wengrow, uses archaeology and anthropology to challenge equally linear stories about farming, cities, hierarchy, and the state.
Where to start
Start with Debt: The First 5,000 Years for Graeber's history of obligation and money, then read The Dawn of Everything for the wider argument he developed with David Wengrow.
