Debt The First 5000 Years: A Froogal Stoodent Review

Debt: The First 5000 Years

A Froogal Stoodent Review

If you're interested, you can find this book at Amazon.

The first of a new series of book reviews from The Froogal Stoodent.

This book is far too complex and entangled for me to cite some quotes and provide a quick overview. You should read it for yourself!

In this instance, I’ll just identify one quote that really struck me:

Casimir’s behavior [that is, Margrave Casimir of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who sent a small army to brutalize his own territories in the wake of a rebellion—and of course, took all the gold]…seems, like that of Cortes’s angry foot soldiers when unleashed on the Aztec provinces, to embody something essential about the psychology of debt. Or more precisely, perhaps, about the debtor who feels he has done nothing to deserve being placed in his position: the frantic urgency of having to convert everything around oneself into money, and rage and indignation at having been reduced to the sort of person who would do so.”

—David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years, p. 325

This is a thoroughly-researched, highly academic, heavily-footnoted work.

It is best for those who have a scholarly inclination, since this book tackles not only economics and history, but religion, psychology, and anthropology as well. Though this is a well-written book, it’s also academically dense—not everybody will be able to make it through.

But if you can…whew! It’s a whirlwind tour of how humans have treated one another (and, of course, how money reflects that) across different cultures and different times. It’s dizzying to consider all the different ways that groups of people have set up their societies, and how they’ve chosen different solutions to tackle similar problems.

If you were raised and educated in North America, this book will permanently remove your Euro-centric goggles.

It’s astonishing to consider how many different solutions there have been to problems such as:

• how to acquire the goods you need

• how to settle disputes between individuals

• how to determine where one fits in a hierarchy

• how to arrange terms for a marriage

• how to avoid violence or war

Graeber explores the assumptions and beliefs that underpin these different approaches. In doing so, he shows how each structure makes sense according to its own internal logic, and how each approach has different strengths and weaknesses.

This is an academic masterwork, a truly interdisciplinary overview of human society. Well worth reading. Maybe more than once.

But, as I’ve noted, it’s dense. Much like Bogle’s Clash of the Cultures, it’s brilliant, incisive, clear-eyed…and not for everybody.

Verdict: Highly recommended. But only for people who enjoy learning.

• If you routinely read academic nonfiction, this book is a good choice.
• If you can’t get enough of the various financial independence blogs, this book is a good choice.
• If you want to gain a better understanding of today’s financial system and its place in history, this book is a good choice.

But…

• If you seldom read, this might not be your cup of tea.
• If you only read fiction, this might not be your cup of tea.
• If you hated sitting in classes—even when the teacher was talking about something interesting—this book might not be your cup of tea.

You can support this blog—at no cost to you—by buying it on Amazon here.

Or, check out my other book reviews in this series:

1. Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber

2. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

3. The Clash of the Cultures by John C. Bogle

4. Principles (Life and Work) by Ray Dalio

5. When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein

6. The Practicing Stoic by Ward Farnsworth

7. Gold: The Once and Future Money by Nathan Lewis

8. The Changing World Order by Ray Dalio

9. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham