David Graeber was an influential anthropologist and activist known for insightful critiques of economics and society. His engaging works, such as Debt: The First 5,000 Years and Bullshit Jobs, challenged conventional wisdom and provided fresh perspectives on modern life.
If you enjoy reading books by David Graeber then you might also like the following authors:
Noam Chomsky is a thinker known for his critical views on power structures and social justice. With clear arguments and accessible writing, he addresses how language and media shape public opinion.
In Manufacturing Consent, Chomsky examines the media's role in supporting political agendas and suppressing dissent.
James C. Scott writes insightfully about resistance, power, and how ordinary people push back against domination. His work is approachable and grounded in historical examples.
In Seeing Like a State, Scott explores how top-down planning often fails when it ignores local knowledge and everyday practices.
Yuval Noah Harari is a historian who blends big-picture analysis with engaging storytelling. He tackles grand questions about human society and history in straightforward, thought-provoking language.
His book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind offers vivid insights into how humans developed societies, economies, and complex systems of belief.
Thomas Piketty studies wealth inequality and its impact on societies. His approachable style relies on clear explanations of data to highlight economic patterns.
In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Piketty examines historical trends to argue that growing economic inequality is a feature of capitalism, unless actively addressed.
Naomi Klein writes passionately about the impacts of economic and environmental injustice. Her direct style makes difficult concepts understandable and relatable.
In The Shock Doctrine, Klein describes how powerful interests exploit crises to advance political and economic policies that might otherwise face resistance.
Howard Zinn was a historian who brought the voices of ordinary people to life through his honest and accessible writing about American history. He criticized traditional narratives that overlook injustice and oppression, making history relevant to today's readers.
If you enjoy David Graeber's questioning of accepted truths, try Zinn's A People's History of the United States. This book tells history from the viewpoint of marginalized groups, celebrating struggles for rights and equality.
Silvia Federici is a feminist thinker known for her clear, thoughtful writing on capitalism, feminism, and social justice. She explores how economic systems influence gender roles and highlights the importance of women's contributions.
Her book, Caliban and the Witch, explores the connection between capitalism's rise and women's suppression. If Graeber's style of linking economics and social struggles appeals to you, Federici's work will resonate.
Yanis Varoufakis, an economist and political thinker, cuts through complexity with straightforward language. He critiques austerity policies and the global economic system from his own experience in politics.
In Adults in the Room, Varoufakis shares firsthand experiences of economic negotiations within the EU, highlighting the stark gap between power and justice. Readers who appreciate Graeber's directness and insights into power structures will find Varoufakis engaging.
Rutger Bregman is an accessible, thought-provoking writer who focuses on hopeful ideas and realistic optimism about human potential and society.
In Utopia for Realists, he argues convincingly that a better society is achievable through clear-headed, compassionate policies like basic income and reduced working hours.
If you liked Graeber's visionary thinking and genuine belief in positive change, Bregman's ideas offer similar inspiration.
Jared Diamond explains complex historical and social issues clearly, helping readers understand how societies evolve and collapse. His book Guns, Germs, and Steel explores how geography and environment have influenced human history.
Diamond offers sweeping views connecting different fields, similar to Graeber's wide-ranging approach to history and anthropology. If you enjoyed Graeber's big-picture thinking, Diamond's clear and insightful storytelling will appeal to you.
Karl Polanyi writes clearly and insightfully about societies and economies—not simply how markets work, but how they fit into our lives and cultures. If you enjoyed David Graeber's approach, you'll appreciate Polanyi's The Great Transformation.
In it, Polanyi explores how economies become disembedded from social relationships, making thoughtful arguments about the role of market forces in modern life.
Michel Foucault often examines history by focusing on how institutions change social power and the ways we understand ourselves. Like Graeber, he challenges assumptions and critically examines how society and knowledge shape each other.
His book Discipline and Punish shows vividly how punishment has shifted, moving from visible torture to more subtle, internalized forms of discipline.
Peter Kropotkin is known for writing passionately and clearly about cooperation, mutual aid, and communities, offering readers hopeful ideas on human nature and society.
Readers who found inspiration in Graeber's practical optimism about collective action will resonate with Kropotkin's Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, which argues convincingly about the importance of cooperation throughout history.
Marcel Mauss examines the meanings and traditions behind social exchanges—gifting, reciprocity, and the obligations we share with each other. Like Graeber, he challenges economic assumptions that see humans as simply rational actors driven by self-interest.
In his insightful book, The Gift, Mauss explores the role that gift exchanges play in strengthening social bonds and creating meaning in relationships.
Slavoj Žižek approaches philosophy with energetic, provocative arguments about ideology, politics, and popular culture. Like Graeber, Žižek isn't afraid to question prevailing wisdom or offer surprising new insights.
His provocative work The Sublime Object of Ideology invites readers to reconsider how ideology shapes our lives and challenges us to see familiar cultural and political structures in radically new ways.