{"product_id":"the-utopia-of-rules-isbn-9781612195186","title":"The Utopia of Rules","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of the international bestseller \u003ci\u003eDebt: The First 5,000 Years\u003c\/i\u003e comes a revelatory account of the way bureaucracy rules our lives\u003c\/b\u003e   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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?\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e 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.\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Leaping from the ascendance of right-wing economics to the hidden meanings behind Sherlock Holmes and Batman, \u003ci\u003eThe Utopia of Rules\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e An essential book for our times, \u003ci\u003eThe Utopia of Rules \u003c\/i\u003eis 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.“A slim, sprightly, acerbic attack on capitalism's love affair with bureaucracy.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eCory Doctorow, \u003ci\u003eBoingBoing\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eThe Utopia of Rules\u003c\/i\u003e] should offer a challenge to us all. Should we just accept this bureaucracy as inevitable? Or is there a way to get rid of all those hours spent listening to bad call-centre music? Do policemen, academics, teachers and doctors really need to spend half their time filling in forms? Or can we imagine another world?\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eGillian Tett, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Graeber wants us to unshackle ourselves from the limits imposed by bureaucracy, precisely so we can actually get down to openly and creatively arguing about our collective future. In other words, yelling at the book is not just part of the pleasure of reading it. It's part of the point.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eNPR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Graeber’s most interesting claim...is that our expressed hostility toward bureaucracy is at least partly disingenuous: that these thickets of rules and regulations are a source, to quote from his subtitle, of 'secret joys' for most of us.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eOliver Burkeman, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Something like an intellectual hike led by an eccentric guide: a winding set of anecdotes, schematics, juxtapositions, and assertions... He is a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSlate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Thought-provoking.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What intense pleasure this book gave me, despite the dull topic: bureaucracy.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003ePeter Richardson, \u003ci\u003eThe National Memo\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] fizzing, fabulous firecracker of a book… Our contemporary bureaucrats are revealed, in fact, as none other than you and me, forever administering and marketing ourselves.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Literary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Anthropologist Graeber is one of our wildest thinkers (see \u003ci\u003eDebt: The First 5,000 Years\u003c\/i\u003e), and in this book, he takes on the topic of bureaucracy, arguing that what we think of as the root of our civilization — capitalism, technology, rules and regulations — may just be what’s keeping us in chains.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFlavorwire\u003c\/i\u003e, 10 Must Read Books for February\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Inspiring and full of surprising facts… This is ultimately a book about how the systems we invent come to appear natural. We treat our world as though it is a fact, but actually, we produce it. This is not a new idea, but it’s one of the most hopeful we’ve got. It opens the door to change.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMaclean's\u003c\/i\u003e (Canada)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A throughly argued, funny, and surprising new book.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eJonathon Sturgeon, \u003ci\u003eFlavorwire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Persuasive... Graeber’s aim was to start a conversation on the boondoggles and benefits of bureaucracy. In that regard, he has ticked all the right boxes.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Packed with provocative observations and left-field scholarship. Ranging from witty analysis of comic-book narratives to penetrating discussion of world-changing technologies that haven’t actually appeared, it demystifies some of the ruling shibboleths of our time. Modern bureaucracy embodies a view of the world as being essentially rational, but the roots of this vision, Graeber astutely observes, go all the way back to the ancient Pythagoreans.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eJohn Gray, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Admirable and convincing...In his irrepressible, ruminative way, Graeber stands in the comic tradition of Walt Whitman, archy and mehitabel and James Thurber. This is the chorus with which to laugh the trousers off corporate management.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTimes Higher Education\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Interrogates aspects of bureaucratic modernity that are normally unexamined causes of annoyance… Stylish and witty.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eSteven Poole, \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Graeber is an American anthropologist with a winning combination of talents: he’s a startlingly original thinker...able to convey complicated ideas with wit and clarity.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e (UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A sharp, oddly sympathetic and highly readable account of how big government works—or doesn’t work, depending on your point of view.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for \u003c\/u\u003e\u003ci\u003eDebt: The First 5,000 Years\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cu\u003e:\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Written in a brash, engaging style, the book is also a philosophical inquiry into\u003cbr\u003e the nature of debt—where it came from and how it evolved.”\u003cbr\u003e —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An absolutely indispensable—and enormous—treatise on the history of money and its relationship to inequality in society.” \u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eCory Doctorow, \u003ci\u003eBoingBoing\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[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.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eJesse Singal, \u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“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.”\u003cbr\u003e —\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eLibrary Journa\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003el\u003cb\u003eDavid Graeber\u003c\/b\u003e (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 \u003ci\u003eUtopia of Rules \u003c\/i\u003eand wrote widely for publications such as \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHarper’s\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003ci\u003e The Baffler, The Wall Street Journal, n+1, The Nation\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post, The New Inquiry\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe New Left Review\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"Melville House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299999600869,"sku":"NP9781612195186","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781612195186.jpg?v=1767742028","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-utopia-of-rules-isbn-9781612195186","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}