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Comment by JasonCannon | Hacker News Reader

I recommend Debt the first 5000 years as well as The Democracy Project. Both of which were absolutely fascinating to me. Solidarity forever and rest in power Graeber.

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I've seen quite a bit of criticism of the Debt book of basically being a giant exercise in cherry-picking and sort of a politically motivated narrative. However, history and economics are topics where neutrality and objectivity of authors are hardly the norm.

It's an interesting read despite that IMO. When I first read it as a teen it blew my mind, and over time I read a bunch of critiques that corrected beliefes I'd had based on it, but I still think it was a good read, because even a cherry picked tour through history and philosophy is a tour through history and philosophy.

For those looking for a left-wing critique, I like Aufheben's: https://libcom.org/library/5000-years-or-debt

Sure, but it is like that with a lot of stuff you read. I read the economist weekly and they constantly cherry pick whatever makes capitalism and deregulation look great. Still the economist is high quality journalism and has many insights worth reading.

Graeber also obviously has an angle but three are still many interesting insights and angles. I don’t think anyone is ever going to give e complete unbiased version of anything. Better to read different perspectives with an open mind and a healthy does of scepticism.

The Economist has plenty of elite respectability but its journalism is pretty bad. The breathless article about copilot replacing programming labour is fairly indicative of both their accuracy and attitude on most things.

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