This book is a sweeping, revolutionary study of the history of commodity-money relations from ancient times to the present day, authored by David Graeber (1961–2020)—an American anthropologist, London School of Economics professor, activist, and one of the "anti-leaders" of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Drawing on anthropological methods, Graeber argues that the concept of debt lies at the heart of what we traditionally call the economy; throughout the stages of societal development, this debt has taken various forms—including money, barter, collateral, credit, and stocks. A key imperative of the book is to wrest the economy from the grip of "professional economists"—whose failure was laid bare during the last global crisis—and place it within the broader context of cultural history, political science, sociology, and other humanities disciplines. Aimed at a general readership.