Books – David Graeber

Debt: The First 5,000 Years

2011 Melville House Publishing

In this book, David Graeber reveals that before money, there was debt. For over 5,000 years, humans used credit systems to trade goods, predating coins or cash. Graeber argues this era saw the division of society into debtors and creditors. He also shows how debates on debt and forgiveness shaped political revolts and influenced law and religion, with terms like "guilt" and "redemption" rooted in ancient disputes, affecting modern beliefs.

First published 2011 Translations: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, Estonian, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish

Bullshit Jobs

In 2013, David Graeber's essay “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs” asked if our jobs make a meaningful contribution to the world. It went viral, sparking global debate. In Bullshit Jobs, David examines how many roles—HR consultants, corporate lawyers, and more—are meaningless, highlighting how finance capitalism perpetuates this issue. The book calls for a cultural shift, valuing creative and caring work over empty tasks.

First published 2018 Translations: Catalan, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Dutch, English, English (UK), Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a reaction to indigenous critiques of European society, and why they are wrong. In doing so, they overturn our view of human history, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery and civilization itself.

First published 2021 Translations: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish

Toward An Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams

2002 Now a widely cited classic, this innovative book is the first comprehensive synthesis of economic, political, and cultural theories of value. David Graeber reexamines a century of anthropological thought about value and exchange, in large measure to find a way out of ongoing quandaries in current social theory, which have become critical at the present moment of ideological collapse in the face of Neoliberalism.

First published 2002 Translations: Croatian, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Turkish