Debt: The First 5,000 Years

Reviewed by Diario de un Inversor · UpdatedJune 13, 2026

Our review

«Debt: The First 5,000 Years», published in 2011, is the most ambitious and subversive social science book of the past decade. David Graeber, anthropologist at the London School of Economics and Occupy Wall Street activist, undertakes a radical history of debt that systematically dismantles the myths on which conventional economics is built: money did not emerge from barter — credit existed before money; the distinction between «debt» and «moral obligation» is historically far more blurred than economists suggest; and the idea that debts must always be repaid is, across the long history of humanity, more the exception than the rule. The book is fascinating as a comparative history of human economies and as a critique of mainstream economic thought. Its most obvious limitation is that Graeber is as much a polemicist as a scholar: his selection of historical evidence systematically favors arguments supporting his thesis, and his declared antipathy toward market capitalism colors the analysis. Some of his historical claims have been challenged by specialists. It is a book to read critically, but also one that fundamentally changes how one thinks about money and debt.

Key takeaways

• Barter as the origin of money is a myth: anthropological and historical evidence shows that credit and debt predate money as a medium of exchange.
• The earliest known forms of accounting and writing are records of debt, not exchange; debt is prior to coinage.
• The distinction between «debt» — a quantifiable, transferable obligation — and «moral obligation» is a historical construction that modern capitalism has naturalized.
• Throughout history, periods of metallic money have been periods of war and slavery; periods of virtual credit have been periods of greater social flexibility.

Fact

David Graeber published «Debt: The First 5,000 Years» in 2011; Graeber was Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and died in September 2020, at the age of 59.