Audiobooks by David Graeber

The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World Audiobook

"Brought to you by Penguin. Drawn from more than two decades of pathbreaking writing, the iconic and bestselling David Graeber's most important essays and interviews. ‘The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently,’ wrote David Graeber. This new collection brings together the renowned anthropologist, author and activist’s most visionary essays, showing him imagining a new understanding of the past – and a future based on humans' fundamental freedom. Drawn from more than two decades of pathbreaking writing, and ranging across the biggest issues of our time – inequality, technology, the identity of ‘the West,’ democracy, art, power, anger, mutual aid and protest – Graeber’s essays challenge the old assumptions about political life. Despite converging political, economic, and ecological crises, our politics is still dominated by either ‘business as usual’ or nostalgia for a mythical past. Instead, Graeber shows himself to be a trenchant critic of the order of things, driven by a bold imagination and a passionate hope that our world can be different. The incisive, entertaining and urgent essays collected in The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World make for essential reading. They are a profound reminder of Graeber's enduring significance as an inspiring and necessary thinker. © David Graeber 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024"

David Graeber (Author), Jacques Servin, Savitri D (Narrator)

Audiobook

[German] - Bullshit Jobs

"Ein Bullshit-Job ist eine Beschäftigungsform, die so völlig sinnlos, unnötig oder schädlich ist, dass selbst der Arbeitnehmer ihre Existenz nicht rechtfertigen kann. Es geht also gerade nicht um Jobs, die niemand machen will, sondern um solche, die eigentlich niemand braucht. Im Jahr 1930 sagte der britische Ökonom John Maynard Keynes voraus, dass durch den technischen Fortschritt heute niemand mehr als 15 Stunden pro Woche arbeiten müsse. Fast ein Jahrhundert danach stellt David Graeber fest, dass die Gegenwart anders aussieht: Die durchschnittliche Arbeitszeit ist gestiegen und immer mehr Menschen üben Tätigkeiten aus, die unproduktiv und daher eigentlich überflüssig sind – als Immobilienmakler, Investmentbanker oder Unternehmensberater. Es sind Jobs, die keinen sinnvollen gesellschaftlichen Beitrag leisten. Es sind Bullshit-Jobs. Warum bezahlt eine Ökonomie solche Tätigkeiten, die sie nicht braucht? Wie ist es zu dieser Entwicklung gekommen? Und was können wir dagegen tun? David Graeber, einer der radikalsten politischen Denker unserer Zeit, geht diesem Phänomen auf den Grund. Ein packendes Plädoyer gegen die Ausweitung sinnloser Arbeit, die die moralischen Grundfesten unserer Gesellschaft ins Wanken bringt. »Eine Einladung zum Umdenken.« Business Bestseller »Drastische Ideen, spannend zu lesen!« P. M. "

David Graeber (Author), Michael Jürgen Diekmann (Narrator)

Audiobook

Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia

"Brought to you by Penguin. The Enlightenment did not begin in Europe. Its true origins lie thousands of miles away on the island of Madagascar, in the late seventeenth century, when it was home to several thousand pirates. This was the Golden Age of Piracy, a period of violent buccaneering and rollicking legends - but it was also, argues anthropologist David Graeber, a brief window of radical democracy, as the pirate settlers attempted to apply the egalitarian principles of their ships to a new society on land. For Graeber, Madagascar's lost pirate utopia represents some of the first stirrings of Enlightenment political thought. In this jewel of a book, he offers a way to 'decolonise the Enlightenment', demonstrating how this mixed community experimented with an alternative vision of human freedom, far from that being formulated in the salons and coffee houses of Europe. Its actors were Malagasy women, merchants and traders, philosopher kings and escaped slaves, exploring ideas that were ultimately to be put into practice in by Western revolutionary regimes a century later. Pirate Enlightenment is a retelling of Enlightenment myths. In their place comes a story about the magic, sea battles, purloined princesses, manhunts, make-believe kingdoms, fraudulent ambassadors, spies, jewel thieves, poisoners and devil worship that lie at the origins of modern freedom. © David Graeber 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023"

David Graeber (Author), Roger Davis (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

"Brought to you by Penguin. For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a reaction to indigenous critiques of European society, and why they are wrong. In doing so, they overturn our view of human history, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery and civilization itself. Drawing on path-breaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we begin to see what's really there. If humans did not spend 95 per cent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful possibilities than we tend to assume. The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision and faith in the power of direct action. 'Pacey and potentially revolutionary' Sunday Times 'Iconoclastic and irreverent ... an exhilarating read' The Guardian 'Boldly ambitious, entertaining and thought-provoking' Observer 'This is not a book. This is an intellectual feast' Nassim Nicholas Taleb © David Graeber, David Wengrow 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021"

David Graeber, David Wengrow (Author), Malk Williams (Narrator)

Audiobook

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

"Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, read by Christopher Ragland. Be honest: if your job didn't exist, would anybody miss it? Have you ever wondered why not? Up to 40% of us secretly believe our jobs probably aren't necessary. In other words: they are bullshit jobs. This book shows why, and what we can do about it. In the early twentieth century, people prophesied that technology would see us all working fifteen-hour weeks and driving flying cars. Instead, something curious happened. Not only have the flying cars not materialised, but average working hours have increased rather than decreased. And now, across the developed world, three-quarters of all jobs are in services, finance or admin: jobs that don't seem to contribute anything to society. In Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber explores how this phenomenon - one more associated with the Soviet Union, but which capitalism was supposed to eliminate - has happened. In doing so, he looks at how, rather than producing anything, work has become an end in itself; the way such work maintains the current broken system of finance capital; and, finally, how we can get out of it. This book is for anyone whose heart has sunk at the sight of a whiteboard, who believes 'workshops' should only be for making things, or who just suspects that there might be a better way to run our world. 'Spectacular and terrifyingly true' Owen Jones 'Explosive' John McDonnell, New Statesman, Books of the Year 'Thought-provoking and funny' The Times"

David Graeber (Author), Christopher Ragland (Narrator)

Audiobook

Debt - Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years

"Now in audio, the updated and expanded edition : David Graeber’s “fresh . . . fascinating . . . thought-provoking . . . and exceedingly timely” (Financial Times) history of debt Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it."

David Graeber (Author), Grover Gardner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks by David Graeber

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