Meet the Graebers

David Graeber says he’s been an anarchist since the age of 16. This isn’t surprising, as he grew up in a New York City home dominated by radical politics. His parents were working-class intellectuals who lived out their idealism in public. Graeber’s mother, Ruth Rubinstein, worked in the city’s clothing industry and played the lead role in the 1930s musical comedy Pins and Needles, staged by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. His father, Kenneth, was a communist who sailed to Spain in 1937 to take part in what he saw as a war between democracy and fascism. He served as an ambulance driver in anarchist Barcelona. David Graeber received his BA from the State University of New York and his master’s and doctorate from the University of Chicago. www.davidgraeber.industries