Born in 1961 to a father who fought with the Communists in the Spanish Civil War and to a mother who was a member of the international Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Graeber began his career as an anthropologist, studying at SUNY-Purchase and the University of Chicago before doing two years of anthropological fieldwork in Madagascar on a Fulbright fellowship and teaching at Yale University. Graeber's history of challenging the economic status quo can be traced back to his parents. That tradition is now a fast-growing group of US academics breaking out of the Cold War legacies that still hobble so much work in the social sciences.' Wolff, Professor of Economics Emeritus from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told Salon by email that 'David Graeber did original work carrying forward the tradition of thinking critically about capitalism and advocating for a better system. David was such an inspiration and believer in the kind of world we must become. His sentiments were echoed by Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, who tweeted in reply to Dubrovsky: 'So very sorry sorry. And a phenomenal writer.' historian Rutger Bregman, author of 'Utopia for Realists' and 'Humankind,' tweeted on Thursday. 'Shocked to hear that David Graeber has passed away, one of the greatest thinkers of our time. Although the cause of Graeber's death has not been announced at the time of this writing, Dubrovsky tweeted that he died at a hospital in Venice.

The news of Graeber's passing - which was announced by his widow, the artist and writer Nika Dubrovksy, over Twitter - has shaken academics, readers and activists around the world. David Graeber, an American anthropologist and anarchist best known for authoring popular and accessible books about economic justice, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 59.

Graeber debt