Debt: The First 5,000 Years

I didn’t get into this.

I thought it was an examination of the financial type of debt, but it literally starts way back at the dawn of civilization with the idea of moral debt – “I owe you my life,” and such. Then it progresses laboriously forward through a long period of human debt – slavery and servitude and such – and doesn’t really even discuss money until the second half (of a 550-page book…)

The author hints at an agenda, which he basically states in the introduction in the form of an anecdote at a party where a woman told him that “one must pay one’s debts,” and he thought this was absurd.

I didn’t finish it. I got about two-thirds of the way through it before giving up. It’s super-tedious, and I just wasn’t getting anything out of it.

Book Info