Editing David Graeber (section)

== Main works ==
Graeber is the author of ''[[Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology]]'' and ''[[Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value|Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams]]''. He conducted extensive anthropological work in [[Madagascar]], writing his doctoral thesis, ''The Disastrous Ordeal of 1987: Memory and Violence in Rural Madagascar'', on the continuing social division between the descendants of nobles and the descendants of former slaves.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BpulSwAACAAJ|title=The Disastrous Ordeal of 1987: Memory and Violence in Rural Madagascar|publisher=University of Chicago, Department of Anthropology|year=1996|volume=3|last=Graeber|first=David}}</ref> A book based on his dissertation, [[Lost People|''Lost People: Magic and the Legacy of Slavery in Madagascar'']], was published by [[Indiana University Press]] in September 2007.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4NlSUM8OqUAC|title=Lost People: Magic and the Legacy of Slavery in Madagascar|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2007|last=Graeber|first=David|isbn=9780253219152|access-date=September 19, 2020|archive-date=September 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926034940/https://books.google.com/books?id=4NlSUM8OqUAC|url-status=live}}</ref> A book of collected essays, ''[[Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire]]'' was published by [[AK Press]] in November 2007,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NjRxSBP0JqYC|title=Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion and Desire|publisher=AK Press|year=2007|last=Graeber|first=David|isbn=9781904859666}}</ref> and ''[[Direct Action: An Ethnography]]'' appeared from the same press in August 2009.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PnTDEQkCoc4C|title=Direct Action: An Ethnography|publisher=AK Press|year=2009|last=Graeber|first=David|isbn=9781904859796|access-date=September 19, 2020|archive-date=September 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926034941/https://books.google.com/books?id=PnTDEQkCoc4C|url-status=live}}</ref> Moreover, the aforementioned publisher printed a collection of essays by Graeber – co-edited with Stevphen Shukaitis and Erika Biddle – called ''Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations/Collective Theorization'' (AK Press, May 2007).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fcl8T_gmU4wC|title=Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations/Collective Theorization|publisher=AK Press|year=2007|editor1-last=Shukaitis|editor1-first=Stevphen|editor2-last=Graeber|editor2-first=David|editor3-last=Biddle|editor3-first=Erika|isbn=9781904859352|access-date=September 19, 2020|archive-date=September 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926034952/https://books.google.com/books?id=Fcl8T_gmU4wC|url-status=live}}</ref>

In December 2017, Graeber and his former teacher [[Marshall Sahlins]] released a collection of essays entitled ''On Kings'', outlining a theory, inspired by [[Arthur Maurice Hocart|A. M. Hocart]], of the origins of human sovereignty in cosmological ritual.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ef03jgEACAAJ|title=On Kings|publisher=Hau Books|year=2017|last1=Sahlins|first1=Marshall|last2=Graeber|first2=David|isbn=9780986132506}}</ref> Graeber contributed essays on the [[Shilluk Kingdom|Shilluk]] and [[Merina kingdom]]s, and a final essay that explored what he called "the constitutive war between king and people".<ref>{{cite web|title=Front matter of ''On Kings''|url=https://haubooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Kings_frontmatter.pdf|access-date=September 4, 2020|publisher=Hau Books|archive-date=September 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910073940/https://haubooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Kings_frontmatter.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> He was working on a historical work on the origins of [[social inequality]] with [[David Wengrow]],<ref>{{cite news|title=How to change the course of human history|url=https://www.eurozine.com/change-course-human-history/|first1=David|last1=Graeber|first2=David|last2=Wengrow|date=March 2, 2018|access-date=September 4, 2020|magazine=Eurozine|archive-date=September 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910074214/https://www.eurozine.com/change-course-human-history/|url-status=live}}</ref> published posthumously as ''[[The Dawn of Everything]]''.

From January 2013 until June 2016, Graeber was a contributing editor at ''[[The Baffler]]'' magazine in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], where he, too, participated in the public debate about futures of technology.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schuessler |first=Jennifer |date=2014-09-21 |title=Still No Flying Cars? Debating Technology's Future |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/arts/peter-thiel-and-david-graeber-debate-technologys-future.html |access-date=2022-07-01 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> From 2011 until 2017 he was editor-at-large of the open access journal ''[[HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory]]'', for which he and [[Giovanni da Col]] co-wrote the founding theoretical statement and manifesto of the school of "ethnographic theory".<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau1.1.001/50|title=The return of ethnographic theory|author1=Giovanni da Col|author2=David Graeber|journal=HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory|volume=1|number=1|year=2011|access-date=September 23, 2016|archive-date=September 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924110350/http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/view/hau1.1.001/50|url-status=live}}</ref>

Charles Kenny, writing in the political magazine ''[[Democracy (journal)|Democracy]]'', claimed that Graeber sought out data that "fit the narrative on the evils of neoliberalism" and challenged or criticized data which suggested otherwise.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/48/its-not-as-bad-as-all-that/|title=It's Not As Bad As All That|date=March 26, 2018|website=Democracy Journal|language=en|access-date=July 6, 2019|archive-date=July 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190706194447/https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/48/its-not-as-bad-as-all-that/|url-status=live}}</ref>

His book ''[[The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity]]'', co-written with archaeologist [[David Wengrow]], was published posthumously in 2021.<ref>{{cite web |title=David Graeber Memorial Lectures |url=https://www.ciis.edu/academics/graduate-programs/anthropology-and-social-change/david-graeber-memorial-lectures |website=California Institute of Integral Studies |access-date=13 May 2021 |language=en |archive-date=May 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513123759/https://www.ciis.edu/academics/graduate-programs/anthropology-and-social-change/david-graeber-memorial-lectures |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== ''Debt: The First 5000 Years'' ===
{{Main|Debt: The First 5000 Years}}
Graeber's first major historical monograph was ''[[Debt: The First 5000 Years]]'' (2011).<ref name="melville" />

Karl Schmid, writing in the Canadian Anthropology Society's journal ''[[Anthropologica]]'', described ''Debt'' as an "unusual book" which "may be the most read public anthropology book of the 21st century" and noted that "it will be difficult for Graeber or anyone else to top this book for the attention it received due to excellent timing".<ref name="Schmid">{{cite journal|last=Schmid|first=Karl|date=January 1928|title=''Debt: The First 5,000 Years'' by David Graeber (review)|journal=Anthropologica|volume=56|issue=1|pages=244–246|publisher=University of Toronto Press|access-date=September 4, 2020|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/544759|issn=0003-5459|archive-date=September 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200904002755/https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/49737-melville-house-finds-hit-for-the-99.html|url-status=live}}{{registration required}}</ref> Schmid compared ''Debt'' to [[Jared Diamond]]'s ''[[Guns, Germs, and Steel]]'' and [[James C. Scott]]'s ''[[The Art of Not Being Governed]]'' for its "vast scope and implication".<ref name=Schmid/> However, Schmid expressed minor frustrations with the sheer length of the book, and the fact that Graeber raises many claims and examples which he does not go on to develop in full.<ref>Schmid, K. (2014). ''Anthropologica'', 56(1), 244–46. Retrieved September 4, 2020, {{JSTOR|24469657}}</ref>

[[J. Bradford DeLong]], an economic historian, criticized ''Debt'' on his blog,<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Very Last David Graeber Post...|url=https://www.bradford-delong.com/2013/01/the-very-last-david-graeber-post.html|access-date=August 9, 2019|website=Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality|archive-date=July 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729032022/https://www.bradford-delong.com/2013/01/the-very-last-david-graeber-post.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=David Graeber April Fools' Day Post: Cheaply Manufacturing Extended Trollage via Sub-Turing Evocations: Threat or Menace? Weblogging|url=https://www.bradford-delong.com/2013/04/david-graeber-april-fools-day-post.html|access-date=August 9, 2019|website=Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality|archive-date=September 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910080309/https://www.bradford-delong.com/2013/04/david-graeber-april-fools-day-post.html|url-status=live}}</ref> alleging mistakes in the book. Graeber responded that these errors had no influence on his argument, remarking that the "biggest actual mistake DeLong managed to detect in the 544 pages of ''Debt'', despite years of flailing away, was (iirc) that I got the number of Presidential appointees on the Federal Open Market Committee board wrong".<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|title=Brad DeLong reply – David Graeber Industries|language=en-US|work=David Graeber Industries|url=https://davidgraeber.industries/sundries/brad-delong-reply|access-date=September 15, 2019|archive-date=September 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910082206/https://davidgraeber.industries/sundries/brad-delong-reply|url-status=live}}</ref> He dismissed his other criticisms as representing a divergence of interpretation, truncation of his arguments by DeLong, and mistakes in the [[copy editing]] of the book.<ref name=":0" />

=== Bureaucracy, managerialism, and "bullshit jobs" ===

Much of Graeber's later scholarship focused on the topic of "bullshit jobs", proliferated by administrative bloat and what Graeber calls "[[Bullshit Jobs#Graeber and Corporate Feudalism|managerial feudalism]]". One of the points he raised in his 2013 book ''[[The Democracy Project]]''—on the [[Occupy movement]]—is the increase in what he calls ''bullshit jobs'', referring to forms of employment that even those holding the jobs feel should not or do not need to exist. He sees such jobs as being typically "concentrated in professional, managerial, clerical, sales, and service workers".<ref>{{cite news|author=[[Yves Smith]]|journal=[[Naked Capitalism]]|url=http://www.alternet.org/economy/dignity-and-work?paging=off|title=Has Anyone Noticed That Most New Jobs Suck?|date=August 13, 2013|access-date=September 3, 2013|archive-date=March 18, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318021519/http://www.alternet.org/economy/dignity-and-work?paging=off|url-status=live}}</ref> As he explained also in an article in ''STRIKE!'': "Huge swathes of people, in Europe and North America in particular, spend their entire working lives performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.strike.coop/bullshit-jobs/|title=On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs|date=July 17, 2013|last=Graeber|first=David|publisher=STRIKE! Magazine|access-date=December 11, 2019|archive-date=December 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191211140746/http://www.strike.coop/bullshit-jobs|url-status=live}}</ref>

Because of the article's popularity, Graeber then wrote the book [[Bullshit Jobs|''Bullshit Jobs: A Theory'']], published in 2018 by [[Simon & Schuster]]. Writing for the ''[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]]'', Nathan Heller described the resulting book as having "the virtue of being both clever and charismatic."<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-bullshit-job-boom|title=The Bullshit-Job Boom|first=Nathan|last=Heller|magazine=The New Yorker|date=June 7, 2018|access-date=September 3, 2020|archive-date=September 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910090059/https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-bullshit-job-boom|url-status=live}}</ref> Reviewing the book for the ''New York Times'', Alana Semuels noted that although it could be criticized for generalizations about economics, "Graeber's anthropological eye and skepticism about capitalism are useful in questioning some parts of the economy that the West has come to accept as normal."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/books/review/david-graeber-bullshit-jobs.html|title=Are More and More People Working Meaningless Jobs?|first=Alana|last=Semuels|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 26, 2018|access-date=September 3, 2020|archive-date=September 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910090130/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/books/review/david-graeber-bullshit-jobs.html|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[The Guardian]]'' gave a mixed review of Graeber's ''Bullshit Jobs'', accusing him of having a "slightly condescending attitude" and attesting to the book's "laboured arguments," while referring to aspects of the book's thesis as "clearly right."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/27/bullshit-jobs-a-theory-david-graeber-review-laboured-rant|title=Bullshit Jobs: A Theory review – laboured rant about the world of work|last=Anthony|first=Andrew|date=May 27, 2018|work=The Observer|access-date=August 10, 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0029-7712|archive-date=September 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910090306/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/27/bullshit-jobs-a-theory-david-graeber-review-laboured-rant|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Bullshit Jobs'' spent four weeks in the top 20 of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''' bestseller list.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://projects.latimes.com/bestsellers/titles/bullshit-jobs/|title=Bestsellers|website=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=September 3, 2020|archive-date=September 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910090411/http://projects.latimes.com/bestsellers/titles/bullshit-jobs/|url-status=live}}</ref>