Incredible anthropology of debt, trade, money, and the social systems that relate to them. Remarkably non-polemic, and avoids writing prescriptions until a very general open-ended (and Biblical!) one at the end. Thus, if you are “afraid" of this book, you need not be. Socioeconomic terms are often loaded, but Graeber has done a marvelous job avoiding that, here. There is truly only one contentious one, and he introduces his usage well: when he says “communism" (particularly “baseline communism"), he simply means something like “mutual aid", not all the trappings we associate with the term. Thus, for example, when he says “communism of the rich" he is referring to their ability to close ranks and help one another.