Editing David Graeber (section)

== Early life and education ==
David Graeber was born into a working-class family. His parents were left-wing political activists.<ref name="f">{{ cite journal 
| last1        =  Graeber
| first1       =  David
| interviewer-last1       =  Appel
| interviewer-first1       = Hannah Chadeayne
| date         = Winter 2014
| title        = Finance Is Just Another Word for Other People’s Debts
| url          = https://davidgraeber.org/interviews/finance-is-just-another-word-for-other-peoples-debts/
| journal      = [[Radical History Review]]
| issue        = 118 
| publisher    = [[Duke University Press]]
| pages        = 159-173
| issn         = 0163-6545
| access-date  =  
}}</ref><ref name=businessweek/>

[[File:Graeber, Kenneth.jpg|thumb|250px|Kenneth Graeber, 1936]]
David's father, Kenneth (1914-1996), came from a family of [[Germany|German]] immigrants who settled in [[Kansas]] in the 19th century. He was educated at [[Lawrence University|Lawrence College]] (according to other sources, at the [[University of Kansas]]), where he met members of the [[Young Communist League USA]]. As a result, he volunteered for the [[Spanish Civil War]], where he served as a driver in a medical unit. After the war, he returned to the United States and completed his education. At the same time, he broke with the [[communist]]s, but remained actively involved in the [[Left-wing politics|left-wing movement]]. During [[World War II]], Kenneth served in the merchant marine. Later, he worked as a plate stripper on offset presses.<ref name="f"/><ref name=businessweek/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alba-valb.org/volunteers/kenneth-graeber |publisher=Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Spanish Civil War History and Education |title=Kenneth Graeber |access-date=December 4, 2011 |archive-date=January 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107063238/http://www.alba-valb.org/volunteers/kenneth-graeber/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

David's mother, Ruth Rubinstein (1917-2006), was from a family of [[History of the Jews in Poland|Polish Jews]] who moved to the United States in the late 1920s. In the 1930s, she went to college, but due to the [[Great Depression]], she was forced to leave it and start working in a factory. Ruth was an active member of the [[International Ladies Garment Workers Union]]. There she took part in the union theater group. The comedy "[[Pins and Needles]]" staged with her participation became a hit on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] for several years (1937-1940). However, she did not continue her stage career, returning to the factory.<ref name="f"/><ref name=businessweek/><ref>{{cite web
|last         = Ruth
|first        = Graeber
|date         = 1997
|title        = Graeber, Ruth interview on "Pins and Needles", 1997. Collection Number: 6036/081 AV
|url          = https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL06036-081av.html
|publisher    = Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives Cornell University Library
|url-status   = 
|archive-url  = 
|archive-date = 
|access-date  = 
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/20/classified/paid-notice-deaths-graeber-ruth-r.html |title=Paid Notice: Deaths: Graeber, Ruth R. |work=The New York Times |date=April 20, 2006 |access-date=December 4, 2011 |archive-date=July 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729083115/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/20/classified/paid-notice-deaths-graeber-ruth-r.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

David's parents met after World War II during their stay in the left camp. Their marriage led to Ruth's relatives stopping communicating with her, not accepting her German husband. The family settled in [[New York City|New York]], where David and his brother Eric (1952-2003) were born.<ref name="f"/><ref name=businessweek/><ref>{{cite news
|date        = 2003-09-07
|title       = Paid Notice: Deaths GRAEBER, ERIC ALAN
|url         = https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07/classified/paid-notice-deaths-graeber-eric-alan.html
|work         = 
|location     = 
|publisher    = The New York Times
|url-status   = 
|archive-url  = 
|archive-date = 
|access-date  = 
}}</ref>

David Graeber grew up in [[Penn South]], a union-sponsored [[housing cooperative]] in [[Chelsea, Manhattan]],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Roberts|first=Sam|date=September 4, 2020|title=David Graeber, Caustic Critic of Inequality, Is Dead at 59|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/books/david-graeber-dead.html|access-date=September 5, 2020|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=September 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200907234627/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/04/books/david-graeber-dead.html|url-status=live}}</ref> described by ''[[Business Week]]'' magazine as "suffused with radical politics."<ref name=businessweek/>

Graeber had his first experience of political activism at the age of seven, when he attended [[peace march]]es in New York's [[Central Park]] and [[Fire Island]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Lateu|first=Jo|date=January 1, 2014|title=David Graeber on acting like an anarchist|url=https://newint.org/columns/finally/2014/01/01/david-graeber|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820133427/https://newint.org/columns/finally/2014/01/01/david-graeber|archive-date=August 20, 2020|magazine=New Internationalist|issue=January–February 2014|language=en|access-date=September 5, 2020}}</ref> He was an anarchist from the age of 16, according to an interview he gave to ''[[The Village Voice]]'' in 2005.<ref name="vv" />

Graeber attended local public schools PS 11 and IS 70. His passion for deciphering [[Maya script]] helped him win a scholarship that allowed him to spend several years at [[Phillips Academy Andover]]. He then attended the [[State University of New York at Purchase]], where he graduated in 1984 with a BA in [[Anthropology]].<ref>{{cite web
|last        = Graeber
|first       = David
|title       = David’s autobiography
|url         = https://davidgraeber.org/about-david-graeber/
|website     = David Graeber Institute
|location    = 
|publisher   = 
|access-date = 
}}</ref>

Graeber received his master's degree and doctorate at the [[University of Chicago]], where he won a [[Fulbright Program|Fulbright fellowship]] to conduct 20 months of [[ethnography|ethnographic]] [[field research]] in [[Madagascar]], beginning in 1989.<ref name="Fischer">{{cite news|last=Fischer|first=Molly|title=David Graeber's Possible Worlds|date=November 9, 2021|newspaper=Intelligencer |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/david-graeber-dawn-of-everything.html}}</ref><ref name="Berrett">{{cite news |last=Berrett |first=Dan |title=Intellectual Roots of Wall St. Protest Lie in Academe |date=October 16, 2011 |newspaper=The Chronicle of Higher Education |url=http://chronicle.com/article/Intellectual-Roots-of-Wall/129428/ |access-date=February 19, 2013 |archive-date=April 7, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407092538/https://chronicle.com/article/Intellectual-Roots-of-Wall/129428/ |url-status=live }}</ref> His resulting Ph.D. thesis on magic, slavery, and politics was supervised by [[Marshall Sahlins]] and entitled ''The Disastrous Ordeal of 1987: Memory and Violence in Rural Madagascar''.<ref name=arenson/><ref name="YaleBio">{{cite web |last=Graeber |first=David |title=David Graeber |website=Yale University Department of Anthropology |publisher=Yale University |year=2004 |url=http://www.yale.edu/anthropology/people/dgraeber.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040222235548/http://www.yale.edu/anthropology/people/dgraeber.html |archive-date=February 22, 2004}}</ref>