Home The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy by David Graeber (ISBN: 9781612193748)

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The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy Hardback - 2015

Name: The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy
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Author: David Graeber
ISBN: 9781612193748

by David Graeber

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From the publisher

From the author of the international bestseller Debt: The First 5,000 Years comes a revelatory account of the way bureaucracy rules our lives

Where does the desire for endless rules, regulations, and bureaucracy come from? How did we come to spend so much of our time filling out forms? And is it really a cipher for state violence?

To answer these questions, the anthropologist David Graeber--one of our most important and provocative thinkers--traces the peculiar and unexpected ways we relate to bureaucracy today, and reveals how it shapes our lives in ways we may not even notice...though he also suggests that there may be something perversely appealing--even romantic--about bureaucracy.

Leaping from the ascendance of right-wing economics to the hidden meanings behind Sherlock Holmes and Batman, The Utopia of Rules is at once a powerful work of social theory in the tradition of Foucault and Marx, and an entertaining reckoning with popular culture that calls to mind Slavoj Zizek at his most accessible.

An essential book for our times, The Utopia of Rules is sure to start a million conversations about the institutions that rule over us--and the better, freer world we should, perhaps, begin to imagine for ourselves.

Details

Title The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy
Author David Graeber
Binding Hardback
Edition First Edition
Pages 272
Volumes 1
Language ENG
Publisher Melville House Publishing, Brooklyn
Publication date 2015-02-03
Illustrated Yes
ISBN 9781612193748 / 1612193749
Weight 0.96 lbs (0.44 kg)
Dimensions 9.03 x 5.99 x 0.96 in (22.94 x 15.21 x 2.44 cm)
Category Archaeology / Anthropology
Library of Congress subjects Power (Social sciences), Technological innovations
Dewey Decimal Code 302.35

Media reviews

Praise for Debt: The First 5,000 Years:

“Written in a brash, engaging style, the book is also a philosophical inquiry into
the nature of debt—where it came from and how it evolved.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“An absolutely indispensable—and enormous—treatise on the history of money and its relationship to inequality in society.”
—Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing

“[A]n engaging book. Part anthropological history and part provocative political argument, it’s a useful corrective to what passes for contemporary conversation about debt and the economy.” —Jesse Singal, Boston Globe

“This timely and accessible book would appeal to any reader interested in the past and present culture surrounding debt, as well as broad-minded economists.”
—Library Journal

About the author

David Graeber (1961-2020) was a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics. One of the original organizers of Occupy Wall Street, Graeber was also the author of Utopia of Rules and wrote widely for publications such as The Guardian, Harper's, The Baffler, The Wall Street Journal, n+1, The Nation, The Washington Post, The New Inquiry, and The New Left Review.

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