Debt: The First 5,000 Years

An important historical work on debt, by a serious academic. Sure to be course adopted and widely read by activists. There is also a strong possibility that the book will break out, given the importance of the topic to the present moment. Before there were coins or paper money, there was debt: Where it came from and how it affects us today.

Approaches the current economic crisis from a historical perspective that goes beyond what is currently in discussion. Graeber covers not only the rise of financial capital (a la Niall Ferguson''s The Ascent of Money, or Liaquat Ahamed''s Lord of Finance) but the origins of virtual money, which Graeber''s ties to the origins of debt itself.
Author is a young articulate academic, who has already been featured in the New York Times, and on Charlie Rose. He also writes for Harper''s and The Nation. "His writings on anthropological theory are outstanding. I consider him the best anthropological theorist of his generation from anywhere in the world." (Maurice Bloch, Professor of Anthropology at the LSE and European Professor at the Collège de France)