Debt - Updated and Expanded

Graeber traces the history of debt across more than 5,000 years, challenging familiar stories about how money and credit developed. He connects early debt systems with the relationship between debtors and creditors, and with wider questions of power, obligation, and social order.

The book also follows how debates over debt forgiveness have shaped moral and political ideas over time. It is a wide-ranging account for readers interested in economic history, politics, and the origins of everyday language about guilt, sin, and redemption.