David Graeber (1961-2020) was a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics. One of the original organizers of Occupy Wall Street, Graeber was also the author of Utopia of Rules and wrote widely for publications such as The Guardian, Harper's, The Baffler, The Wall Street Journal, n+1, The Nation, The Washington Post, The New Inquiry, and The New Left Review.
“A slim, sprightly, acerbic attack on capitalism's love affair with
bureaucracy."
—Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
“[The Utopia of Rules] should offer a challenge to us all. Should
we just accept this bureaucracy as inevitable? Or is there a way to
get rid of all those hours spent listening to bad call-centre
music? Do policemen, academics, teachers and doctors really need to
spend half their time filling in forms? Or can we imagine another
world?"
—Gillian Tett, Financial Times
“Graeber wants us to unshackle ourselves from the limits imposed by
bureaucracy, precisely so we can actually get down to openly and
creatively arguing about our collective future. In other words,
yelling at the book is not just part of the pleasure of reading it.
It's part of the point."
—NPR
“Graeber’s most interesting claim...is that our expressed hostility
toward bureaucracy is at least partly disingenuous: that these
thickets of rules and regulations are a source, to quote from his
subtitle, of 'secret joys' for most of us."
—Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian (UK)
“Something like an intellectual hike led by an eccentric guide: a
winding set of anecdotes, schematics, juxtapositions, and
assertions... He is a master of opening up thought and stimulating
debate."
—Slate
“Thought-provoking."
—Boston Globe
“What intense pleasure this book gave me, despite the dull topic:
bureaucracy.”
—Peter Richardson, The National Memo
“[A] fizzing, fabulous firecracker of a book… Our contemporary
bureaucrats are revealed, in fact, as none other than you and me,
forever administering and marketing ourselves."
—The Literary Review
“Anthropologist Graeber is one of our wildest thinkers (see Debt:
The First 5,000 Years), and in this book, he takes on the topic of
bureaucracy, arguing that what we think of as the root of our
civilization — capitalism, technology, rules and regulations — may
just be what’s keeping us in chains."
—Flavorwire, 10 Must Read Books for February
“Inspiring and full of surprising facts… This is ultimately a book
about how the systems we invent come to appear natural. We treat
our world as though it is a fact, but actually, we produce it. This
is not a new idea, but it’s one of the most hopeful we’ve got. It
opens the door to change.”
—Maclean's (Canada)
“A throughly argued, funny, and surprising new book."
—Jonathon Sturgeon, Flavorwire
“Persuasive... Graeber’s aim was to start a conversation on the
boondoggles and benefits of bureaucracy. In that regard, he has
ticked all the right boxes."
—The Observer (UK)
“Packed with provocative observations and left-field scholarship.
Ranging from witty analysis of comic-book narratives to penetrating
discussion of world-changing technologies that haven’t actually
appeared, it demystifies some of the ruling shibboleths of our
time. Modern bureaucracy embodies a view of the world as being
essentially rational, but the roots of this vision, Graeber
astutely observes, go all the way back to the ancient
Pythagoreans."
—John Gray, The Guardian (UK)
“Admirable and convincing...In his irrepressible, ruminative way,
Graeber stands in the comic tradition of Walt Whitman, archy and
mehitabel and James Thurber. This is the chorus with which to laugh
the trousers off corporate management."
—Times Higher Education (UK)
“Interrogates aspects of bureaucratic modernity that are normally
unexamined causes of annoyance… Stylish and witty."
—Steven Poole, New Statesman (UK)
“Graeber is an American anthropologist with a winning combination
of talents: he’s a startlingly original thinker...able to convey
complicated ideas with wit and clarity."
—The Telegraph (UK)
“A sharp, oddly sympathetic and highly readable account of how big
government works—or doesn’t work, depending on your point of
view."
—Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Debt: The First 5,000 Years:
“Written in a brash, engaging style, the book is also a
philosophical inquiry into
the nature of debt—where it came from and how it evolved.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“An absolutely indispensable—and enormous—treatise on the history
of money and its relationship to inequality in society.”
—Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing
“[A]n engaging book. Part anthropological history and part
provocative political argument, it’s a useful corrective to what
passes for contemporary conversation about debt and the
economy.”
—Jesse Singal, Boston Globe
“This timely and accessible book would appeal to any reader
interested in the past and present culture surrounding debt, as
well as broad-minded economists.”
—Library Journal
Ask a Question About this Product More... |