Capitalism as we know it appears to be coming apart. But as financial institutio
ns stagger and crumble, there is no obvious alternative. There is good reason to
believe that, in a generation or so, capitalism will no longer exist: for the s
imple reason that it's impossible to maintain an engine of perpetual growth fore
ver on a finite planet. Yet faced with this prospect, the knee-jerk reaction is
often to cling to what exists because they simply can't imagine an alternative t
hat wouldn't be even more oppressive and destructive. The political imagination
seems to have reached an impasse. Or has it? In this collection of essays David
Graeber explores a wide-ranging set of topics including political strategy, glob
al trade, debt, imagination, violence, aesthetics, alienation, and creativity.
