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Anthony "Tony" Robbins
Tony Robbins in 2009
Born	(1960-02-29) February 29, 1960 (age 52) North Hollywood, California, United States
Occupation	Author Actor Professional speaker Peak Performance Coach
Years active	1978–present
Height	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)[1][2]
Spouse	Becky Robbins (m. 1982–2001) «start: (1982)–end+1: (2002)»"Marriage: Becky Robbins to Tony Robbins" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.db.wn.com/index.php/Tony_Robbins) Sage Robbins (m. 2001) «start: (2001)»"Marriage: Sage Robbins to Tony Robbins" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.db.wn.com/index.php/Tony_Robbins)

Anthony "Tony" Robbins (born February 29, 1960) is an American self-help author and motivational speaker. He became well known through his infomercials and self-help books, Unlimited Power: The New Science Of Personal Achievement and Awaken The Giant Within. Robbins writes about subjects such as health and energy, overcoming fears, persuasive communication, and enhancing relationships. Robbins began his career learning from many different motivational speakers, and promoted seminars for his personal mentor, Jim Rohn. He is deeply influenced by neuro-linguistic programming and a variety of philosophies.

Robbins's work has been featured in major media including Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, Life, GQ, Vanity Fair, Business Week, Tycoon and Success magazines, the CBS Evening News, NBC News, ABC's Prime Time Live, Fox News, CNN and A&E as well as newspapers, radio programs, and Internet media worldwide.^[3][4] Robbins has been mentioned or featured in 15 major motion pictures, including a cameo role a romantic comedy film Shallow Hal, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jack Black, and Jason Alexander.^[5] In 2007, he was named to Forbes magazine's "Celebrity 100" list.^[6]

Robbins' programs have reached over 4 million people from 100 countries around the world.^[7][8]

Robbins was ranked among the “Top 50 Business Intellectuals in the World” by Accenture’s Institute for Strategic Change.^[9] Robbins has spoken at Harvard Business School^[10] and was ranked by the school among the “Top 200 Business Gurus” (Harvard Business School Press, 2003).^[11][12][13] It was estimated by Forbes Magazine that Robbins earned approximately USD$30 million from his various business activities in 2007.^[14]

Early life[link]

Robbins was born Jay Mahavorick in North Hollywood, California, on February 29, 1960. He later moved to Azusa, California, and attended Glendora High School. Robbins says that he lived in a small low-rent apartment in the Los Angeles area during his early twenties and had dreamed of living in a mansion for years. In 1984, as his career began to take off, he bought the Del Mar Castle, designed by Richard Requa, for $1.7M. He sold the property in 1988 for $3.25M.^[15]

Career[link]

Robbins began his career promoting seminars for Jim Rohn. According to Robbins, Rohn taught him that "happiness and success in life are not the result of what we have, but rather of how we live. What we do with the things we have makes the biggest difference in the quality of life."^[16]

Later Robbins began his own work as a self-help coach. He taught neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and Ericksonian Hypnosis after training with NLP co-founder John Grinder. In 1983, Robbins learned to firewalk from Tolly Burkan^[17] and began to incorporate it into his seminars.^[18][19]

Robbins promoted his services as a "peak performance coach" through his books and TV infomercials, gaining strong public recognition and lucrative sales. He conducts a large range of seminars and live events around the world dedicated to achieving greatness in his participants by unleashing their personal power and helping them align their values with their individual life goals.^[20] In 1997, Robbins began the Leadership Academy seminar, in which participants learn to "[c]reate an identity for them self as someone who can help 'anyone', no matter what his/her challenge may be."^[21] Robbins is a featured speaker on the seminar circuit sponsored by Learning Annex. Robbins appeared as a featured speaker at the 2007 Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference. His talk is among the top ten TED talks viewed online.^[22]

Robbins is involved with the Robbins-Madanes Center for Strategic Intervention, which focuses on personal, family and organizational psychology, and claims to help people "find breakthrough strategies and solutions for overcoming the problems that confront us all."^[23]

Seminars[link]

Tony Robbins giving a talk at a Twitter conference in 2009

Robbins also conducts seminars, including his four-day Unleash the Power Within (UPW) seminar, Mastery University and Business Mastery.^{[24][25] [26]}

The UPW is also known as his firewalk seminar, during which the participants walk barefoot over hot coals at the end of the first evening. The aim of the seminar, demonstrated in the firewalk, is to illustrate that the main quality shared by those who achieve greatness is the ability to take action ("Personal Power").^[27]

Mastery University is promoted at the UPW seminar.^[24][25] Mastery University is composed of three seminars:

- Life Mastery, espouses Robbins' ideas about what makes for a healthy lifestyle, and has in the past featured guest lecturers including Deepak Chopra and John Gray.

- Wealth Mastery, espouses Robbins' ideas about what makes for a wealthy lifestyle.

- Date With Destiny, the only Mastery event at which Robbins is present for the entire event, is said to be designed to help participants align their values so that they are not in conflict, but rather are aligned with the participant's individual goals.^[28]

In 1997, Robbins initiated his Leadership Academy seminar,^[29] in which he invites participants to learn the skills he uses, with the stated goal of the program to enable the participant to "[c]reate an identity for yourself as someone who can help 'anyone', no matter what his/her challenge may be".^[21]

In 2009 Robbins created his Business Mastery program,^[26] designed to provide business leaders with tools to manage and grow their businesses. The seminar is conducted live by Robbins and features entrepreneur guest speakers. Past speakers have included Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts,^[30] Peter Guber (Chairman & CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group)^[31] and Tony Hsieh (CEO and Founder of Zappos.com).^[32][33]

Books[link]

Robbins has published two best-selling books, Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within.

Unlimited Power, published in 1987, discusses the topics of health and energy, overcoming fears, persuasive communication, and enhancing relationships.^[34] One reviewer called the book "uplifting and idealistic" and referenced the "dynamic enthusiasm" of the book;"^[35] and another describes Robbins as “a persuasive communicator who spends more linage on step-by-step details of his recommendations than in self-boosterism."^[36] while another reviewer said it's "too wordy" and "reads like a transcript of a series of talks."^[37] Other reviewers dispute the book's originality, pointing to ideological similarities with Maxwell Maltz, Norman Vincent Peale, Napoleon Hill, and Dale Carnegie, all of whom Robbins acknowledges in his book.^[38] Some have criticized the chapter called "Energy: The Fuel of Excellence" which includes information on food combining, lymphology, and deep breathing to promote health. Robbins makes reference to the book Fit for Life and its authors, Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, whom he refers to as his "former partners".^[39] The National Council for Reliable Health Information wrote a critical review of the chapter and called his sources unreliable.^[40][41]

Awaken the Giant Within, published in 1992, was an expansion of his personal development techniques and strategies taught through a motivational self-help type approach. Robbins made the distinction between his techniques, coined as Neuro-Associative Conditioning as distinct from Neuro-Linguistic Programming because the trademarked difference is defined by the application of "conditioning" to a newly learned personal development technique and/or skill or strategy rather than "being programmed" and suggest-ably fixed once and for all by someone else who had more power than the individual to make a change.^[42]

Movie appearances and TV show[link]

Robbins has cameo roles in the 2001 movie Shallow Hal, the 1994 movie Reality Bites, three episodes of The Roseanne Show and an episode of The Sopranos.^[43] In July 2010, NBC debuted Breakthrough with Tony Robbins, a reality show that followed Robbins as he helped the show's participants face their personal challenges.^[44][45] NBC canceled the show, after airing two of the planned six episodes, due to low viewership of 2.8 million.^[46] In March 2012 the OWN Network picked the show up for another season beginning with the original first season set to re-run and thereafter leading directly into the new 2012 season.^[47]

In April 2012, Robbins began co-hosting "Oprah's Lifeclass" on the OWN Network ^[48]

Anthony Robbins Foundation[link]

In 1991, Robbins launched a charity, the Anthony Robbins Foundation.^[49] It is dedicated to empowering students and prisoners through food drives and learning programs based on his teachings.^[50] According to the official website, the foundation has "products and programs in more than 2,000 schools, 700 prisons, and 100,000 health and human service organizations."^[51] These programs have been written about and featured in many dozens of articles, appearing on various websites, like Cherish Our Children International^[52] and Harmony With No Limits.^[53] The independent charity watchdog, Charity Navigator, gives the foundation a rating of two out of four stars.^[54] The official website states that "the Foundation is committed to make a difference in the quality of life for children, the homeless, the prison population, and the elderly through its various programs". The foundation has subsequently led to the forming of "Basket Brigades" across the world that occur each Thanksgiving. Individuals and groups have joined together to assemble and deliver dinner baskets to needy families.^[49]

Lawsuits[link]

Federal Trade Commission: In May 1995, Robbins Research International (RRI) responded to Federal Trade Commission charges of misrepresentation of potential earnings to franchise investors. RRI and the FTC entered into a stipulated settlement agreement, in which RRI agreed to pay $221,260 (USD) in consumer redress. RRI did not admit guilt under the settlement.^[55]

Wade Cook: Financial seminar guru Wade Cook also sued Robbins for copyright infringement and plagiarism, alleging that Robbins used proprietary terms in his seminars and in his book Wall Street Money Machine. In 1998, a Tacoma, Washington, jury ordered Robbins to pay Cook US$650,900 in damages. The order to pay damages was temporarily withdrawn^[56] until 2000, when the ninth circuit court ruled that the trial judge has misinterpreted the statutes.

The verdict and damages were reinstated with a statement that "The Court found that U.S. District Court Judge, Jack Tanner, erred in "finding a conclusion contrary to the jury award" and sent instructions to reinstate the award. "This is a landmark decision by the 9th Circuit Court because of the high profile players and issues at stake" said lead attorney and Wade Cook General Counsel, Troy Romero. "The Court is telling individuals that, no matter who you are, the protection of copyrightable material will be preserved." Robbins was forced to pay the entire amount.^[57]

In 2001, Robbins filed a lawsuit against the Vancouver Sun newspaper, alleging defamation and libel. The judge determined the Vancouver Sun defamed Robbins when it called him a hypocrite. Awarding Robbins $20,000 in damages, the judge wrote "While damages are presumed, the plaintiff's failure to take the witness stand and to testify about his feelings and the impact of the defamation upon his reputation leaves the court somewhat in the dark about these matters". The court awarded Robbins his attorneys' fees and costs in addition to damages.^[58][59]

Celebrity status[link]

In his book Awaken the Giant Within, Robbins recalls meetings with various celebrities, saying he was a student of their success. People he mentioned were Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterrand, and Princess Diana.^[60] In Robbins' infomercials, celebrity appearances were made by Fran Tarkenton, Pamela Anderson, Quincy Jones, Erin Brockovich and Anthony Hopkins. Robbins stated that they came without any compensation.^[61]

In 1994, President Bill Clinton invited Robbins, Marianne Williamson and Steven R. Covey to a meeting at Camp David. All parties "refused to divulge the substance of their meeting with the Clintons".^[62]

Personal life[link]

In 1984, Robbins and his ex-girlfriend, Liz Acosta, had a son, Jairek Robbins.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, Robbins and his first wife Becky Robbins (née Jenkins) separated. Their divorce was finalized on June 21, 2001. Becky already had three children from two former marriages. Robbins considers them his own children.^[63]

In June 2001, Robbins married Bonnie Humphrey (now known as Sage Robbins)^[64]

Robbins alludes to his personal belief in God in Unlimited Power, giving the grand complexity of life as evidence of an intelligent designer.^[65]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	Psychology portal

• Kaizen, the continuous improvement philosophy
• Self-help

References[link]

Publications[link]

Books[link]

• Robins, Anthony (1986). Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 448 pages. ISBN 0-684-84577-6. 
• Robbins, Anthony (1992). Awaken the Giant Within. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 544 pages. ISBN 0-671-79154-0. 
• Robbins, Anthony (1994). Giant Steps. New York: Fireside. pp. 416 pages. ISBN 0-671-89104-9. 
• Robbins, Anthony (1995). Notes from a Friend: A Quick and Simple Guide to Taking Control of Your Life. New York: Fireside. pp. 112 pages. ISBN 0-684-80056-X. 

CD/DVDs[link]

• Robbins, Anthony (2006). The Edge: The Power to Change Your Life Now. Megaforce / Nightingale-Con. pp. DVD. ASIN B000I5XD1K. 
• Robbins, Anthony (2002). Live with Passion!: Strategies for Creating a Compelling Future. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7435-2521-3. 
• Robbins, Anthony (2001). Get The Edge (incl. Personal Power Classic Edition). Guthy-Renker. ASIN B000207IT4. 
• Robbins, Anthony (2000). Get The Edge. Guthy-Renker. ASIN B000BMASVS. 
• Robbins, Anthony (1998). Lessons in Mastery. Simon & Schuster Audio/Nightingale-Con. ISBN 0-7435-2515-9. 
• Robbins, Anthony (1996). Personal Power Classic Edition. Guthy-Renker. ASIN B000NE70MY. 

Other[link]

• Living Health
• The Time of Your Life
• Mastering Influence
• The Ultimate Relationship Program (Robbins-Madanes)
• Leadership In Times of Crisis (Robbins-Madanes)
• Reclaiming Your True Identity (Robbins-Madanes)
• Conquering Overwhelming Loss (Robbins-Madanes)
• Personal Training System
• Unleash The Power Within

External links[link]

Find more about Tony Robbins on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Official website
• Antony Robbins Foundation, website
• Anthony Robbins at the Internet Movie Database
• Tony Robbins on Facebook

David Graeber
Born	(1961-02-12) February 12, 1961 (age 51)
Residence	London, United Kingdom
Citizenship	United States
Fields	anthropology
Institutions	Yale University Goldsmiths, University of London
Alma mater	State University of New York at Purchase University of Chicago
Influences	Edmund Leach, Marshall Sahlins
Influenced	Occupy movement

David Rolfe Graeber (born 12 February 1961) is an American anthropologist and anarchist who is Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London.^[1] He was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him,^[2] and his term there ended in June 2007. Graeber has been involved in social and political activism, including the protests against the World Economic Forum in New York City in 2002 and Occupy Wall Street. He is a member of the labor union Industrial Workers of the World and of the Interim Committee for the emerging International Organization for a Participatory Society.^[3]

Early life[link]

Graeber's parents, who were in their forties when Graeber was born, were self-taught working-class intellectuals. Graeber's mother, Ruth Rubenstein, had been a garment worker, and played the lead role in the 1930s musical comedy revue Pins & Needles, staged by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.^[4] Graeber's father Kenneth, who was affiliated with the Youth Communist League, participated in the Spanish Revolution in Barcelona and fought in the Spanish Civil War.^[5] He later worked as a plate stripper on offset printers. Graeber grew up in New York, in a cooperative apartment building described by Business Week magazine as "suffused with radical politics."^[6] Graeber has been an anarchist since the age of 16, according to an interview he gave to The Village Voice in 2005.^[7]

Graeber graduated from Phillips Academy Andover in 1978 and received his B.A. from the State University of New York at Purchase in 1984. He gained his Masters degree and Doctorate at the University of Chicago, where he won a Fulbright fellowship and completed his Ph.D. thesis on magic, slavery, and politics in Madagascar.^[2]

Academic career[link]

Graeber in January 2002

In 1998, two years after completing his PhD, Graeber joined Yale University as an assistant professor.^[2] In May 2005, the Yale anthropology department decided not to renew Graeber's contract, preventing him from coming up for consideration for tenure as he would otherwise have been scheduled to do in 2008. Pointing to Graeber's highly regarded anthropological scholarship, his supporters (including fellow anthropologists, former students, and activists) accused the decision of being politically motivated. More than 4,500 people signed petitions supporting him, and well-known British anthropologist Maurice Bloch called for Yale to rescind its decision.^[2] Bloch, who had been a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics and the Collège de France, and world renowned scholar on Madagascar, made the following statement about Graeber in a letter to the university:

"His writings on anthropological theory are outstanding. I consider him the best anthropological theorist of his generation from anywhere in the world."^[8]

The Yale administration argued that Graeber's dismissal was in keeping with Yale's policy of granting tenure to few junior faculty and Yale gave no formal explanation for its actions. Graeber has suggested that his support of a student of his who was targeted for expulsion because of her membership in GESO, Yale's graduate student union, may have played a role in the university's decision.^{[9][2][10][11]}

In December 2005, Graeber agreed to leave the university after a one-year paid sabbatical. That spring he taught two final classes: an introduction to cultural anthropology (attended by over 200 students) and a course entitled “Direct Action and Radical Social Theory” – the only explicitly radical-themed course at Yale he ever taught.

On 25 May 2006, Graeber was invited to give the Malinowski Lecture at the London School of Economics; his address was entitled "Beyond Power/Knowledge: an exploration of the relation of power, ignorance and stupidity".^[12] The anthropology department at the university honors an anthropologist at a relatively early stage of their career to give the Malinowski Lecture each year, and only invite those who are considered to have made a significant contribution to anthropological theory. That same year, Graeber was asked to present the keynote address in the 100th anniversary Diamond Jubilee meetings of the Association of Social Anthropologists.^[13] In April 2011 he presented the anthropology department's annual Distinguished Lecture at Berkeley.^[14]

Authorship[link]

David Graeber is the author of Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology and Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams. He has done extensive anthropological work in Madagascar, writing his doctoral thesis (The Disastrous Ordeal of 1987: Memory and Violence in Rural Madagascar) on the continuing social division between the descendants of nobles and the descendants of former slaves. A book based on his dissertation, Lost People: Magic and the Legacy of Slavery in Madagascar appeared from Indiana University Press in September 2007. A book of collected essays, Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire was published by AK Press in November 2007 and Direct Action: An Ethnography appeared from the same press in August 2009, as well as a collection of essays co-edited with Stevphen Shukaitis called “Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations//Collective Theorization” (AK Press, May 2007). These were followed by a major historical monograph, Debt: the First Five Thousand Years (Melville House), which appeared in July 2011.^[15] As of December 2011^[update], Graeber is working on a book for Random House connecting "the story of the Occupy movement to an exploration of the past and future of direct action, participatory democracy, and political transformation", and another for Melville House combining two essays on bureaucracy (one of which he delivered as the Malinowski Lecture in 2006).^[16]

Activism[link]

Graeber (left) at a rally for immigrant rights at Union Square, New York City in May 2007

In addition to his academic work, Graeber has a history of both direct and indirect involvement in political activism, including membership in the labor union Industrial Workers of the World, a role in protests against the World Economic Forum in New York City in 2002, support for the 2010 UK student protests,^[17] and an early role in the Occupy Wall Street movement. He is co-founder of the Anti-Capitalist Convergence.^[18] In November 2011, Rolling Stone magazine credited Graeber with giving the Occupy Wall Street movement its theme: "We are the 99 percent." Rolling Stone says Graeber helped create the first New York City General Assembly, with only 60 participants, on August 2.^[19] He spent the next six weeks involved with the burgeoning movement, including facilitating general assemblies, attending working group meetings, and organizing legal and medical training and classes on nonviolent resistance. A few days after the encampment of Zuccotti Park began, he left New York for Austin, Texas.^[6]

Graeber has argued that the Occupy Wall Street movement's lack of recognition of the legitimacy of either existing political institutions or the legal structure, its embrace of non-hierarchical consensus decision-making and of prefigurative politics make it a fundamentally anarchist project.^[20] Comparing it to the Arab Spring, Graeber has claimed that Occupy Wall Street and other contemporary grassroots protests represent "the opening salvo in a wave of negotiations over the dissolution of the American Empire."^[21]

Publications[link]

Books[link]

• — (2001). Toward an anthropological theory of value: the false coin of our own dreams. New York: Palgrave. ISBN 978-0-312-24044-8. OCLC 46822270. 
• — (2004). Fragments of an anarchist anthropology. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press (distributed by University of Chicago Press). ISBN 978-0-9728196-4-0. OCLC 55221090. 
• — (2007). Lost people: magic and the legacy of slavery in Madagascar. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34910-1. OCLC 82367869. 
• — (2007). Possibilities: essays on hierarchy, rebellion, and desire. Oakland, CA: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-904859-66-6. OCLC 154704091. 
• — (2009). Direct action: an ethnography. Edinburgh Oakland: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-904859-79-6. OCLC 182529207. 
• — (2011). Debt: the first 5,000 years. Brooklyn, N.Y: Melville House. ISBN 978-1-933633-86-2. OCLC 426794447. 
• — (2011). Revolutions in reverse. London New York: Minor Compositions. ISBN 978-1-57027-243-1. OCLC 759171790. 

As co-editor

• — (2007). Constituent imagination: militant investigations/collective theorization. Oakland, CA: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-904859-35-2. OCLC 141193537. 

Articles[link]

• — (December 27, 1998). "Rebel Without A God". In These Times. http://penseenoir.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/rebel-without-a-god-the-anti-authoritarian-attributes-of-buffy-the-vampire-slayer/. Retrieved February 15, 2012.  A meditation on the anti-authoritarian elements of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• — (August 21, 2000). "Give it Away". In These Times 24, (19). http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/24/19/graeber2419.html. Retrieved February 15, 2012.  An article about the French intellectual Marcel Mauss
• — (January-February 2002). "The New Anarchists". New Left Review (13). Archived from the original on January 30, 2010. http://web.archive.org/web/20100130062023/http://newleftreview.org/A2368. Retrieved February 15, 2012. 
• — (June 1, 2003). "The Twilight of Vanguardism". Indymedia DC. http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/71522/index.php. Retrieved February 15, 2012.  An essay originally delivered as a keynote address during the "History Matters: Social Movements Past, Present, and Future" conference at the New School for Social Research on May 3rd, 2003
• — (January 06, 2004). "Anarchism in the 21st Century". Z Magazine. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=41&ItemID=4796. Retrieved February 15, 2011.  Co-authored with Andrej Grubacic
• — (December 6, 2005). On the phenomenology of giant puppets: broken windows, imaginary jars of urine, and the cosmological role of the police in American culture. http://www.libcom.org/files/puppets.pdf. Retrieved February 15, 2012.  Originally an address to Anthropology, Art and Activism Seminar Series at Brown University's Watson Institute, December 6, 2005
• — (March 2006). "Transformation of Slavery Turning Modes of Production Inside Out: Or, Why Capitalism is a Transformation of Slavery". Critique of Anthropology 26 (1): 61–85. DOI:10.1177/0308275X06061484. http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/dcrawford/graeber_2006a.pdf. Retrieved February 15, 2012. 
• — (January 2007). "Army of Altruists". Harper's. http://harpers.org/archive/2007/01/0081344. Retrieved February 15, 2012.  An attempt to solve the riddle of why so many working class Americans vote right-wing
• — (October 12, 2007). "The Shock of Victory". Infoshop News. http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2007graeber-victory. Retrieved February 15, 2012. 
• — (October 16, 2007). "Revolution in Reverse". Infoshop News. http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2007graeber-revolution-reverse. Retrieved February 15, 2012. 
• — (April 1, 2008). "The Sadness of Post-Workerism, or, "Art and Immaterial Labour" Conference: a Sort of Review". The Commoner. http://www.commoner.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/graeber_sadness.pdf. Retrieved February 15, 2012.  An assessment of recent trendy autonomist theory (à la Negri, Lazzarato, etc.), with some comments on the relation of art, value, scams, and the fate of The Future
• — (November 17, 2008). Hope in Common. Autonomedia.org. Archived from the original on February 10, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090210032906/http://slash.autonomedia.org/node/11569. Retrieved February 15, 2012. 
• — (February 10, 2009). "Debt: The First Five Thousand Years". Mute Magazine 2 (12). http://www.metamute.org/en/content/debt_the_first_five_thousand_years. Retrieved February 15, 2012. 
• — (November 2010). "Against Kamikaze Capitalism: Oil, Climate Change and the French refinery blockades". Shift. http://shiftmag.co.uk/?p=389. Retrieved February 15, 2012. 
• — (December 7, 2010). "To Have is to Owe". Triple Canopy (10). http://www.canopycanopycanopy.com/10/to_have_is_to_owe. Retrieved February 15, 2011.  An illustrated essay on the history of debt, containing excerpts from Debt: the first 5,000 years (2011)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Sutton, David (September 2004). "Anthropology's Value(s): A Review of David Graeber's Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value". Anthropological Theory 4 (3): 373–379. DOI:10.1177/1463499604042818. 
• Guyer, Jane I. (December 2009). "On 'possibility': A response to ‘How Is Anthropology Going?’". Anthropological Theory 9 (4): 355–370. DOI:10.1177/1463499609358143. 

External links[link]

• Academic profile at Goldsmiths, University of London
• Interview to Mark Thwaite (for Ready Steady Book)
• Works by or about David Graeber in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• David Graeber at the Internet Movie Database
• In Conversation: World of Debt: David Graeber with Spencer Woodman, The Brooklyn Rail

The Edge
Background information
Birth name	David Howell Evans
Born	(1961-08-08) 8 August 1961 (age 50) Barking, Essex, England, United Kingdom
Origin	County Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Rock, post-punk, alternative rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, activist
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, keyboards, piano, bass guitar
Years active	1976–present
Labels	Island, Mercury
Associated acts	U2, Passengers
Website	www.u2.com
Notable instruments
Gibson Explorer Fender Stratocaster Gibson Les Paul Fender Telecaster Gretsch Country Gentleman Gretsch White Falcon Rickenbacker 330/12

David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge),^[1] is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record. As a guitarist, The Edge has crafted a minimalistic and textural style of playing. His use of a rhythmic delay effect yields a distinctive ambient, chiming sound that has become a signature of U2's music.

The Edge was born in England to a Welsh family, but was raised in Ireland after moving there as an infant. In 1976, at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, he formed U2 with his fellow students and his older brother Dik. Inspired by the ethos of punk rock and its basic arrangements, the group began to write its own material. They eventually became one of the most popular acts in popular music, with successful albums such as 1987's The Joshua Tree and 1991's Achtung Baby. Over the years, The Edge has experimented with various guitar effects and introduced influences from several genres of music into his own style, including American roots music, industrial music, and alternative rock. With U2, The Edge has also played keyboards, co-produced their 1993 record Zooropa, and occasionally contributed lyrics. The Edge met his second and current wife, Morleigh Steinberg, through her collaborations with the band.

As a member of U2 and as an individual, The Edge has campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes. He co-founded Music Rising, a charity to support musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina. He has collaborated with U2 bandmate Bono on several projects, including songs for Roy Orbison and Tina Turner, and the soundtracks to the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and the Royal Shakespeare Company's London stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine placed him at number 38 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Personal life[link]

The Edge at a U2 concert in Anaheim (2005)

David Howell Evans was born at the Barking Maternity Hospital,^[2] Essex, England to Welsh parents Garvin and Gwenda Evans.^[1] When he was one, his family moved to County Dublin, Ireland where he attended St Andrew's National School. He received piano and guitar lessons and often performed with his brother Dik Evans before they both answered an advertisement posted by Larry Mullen, Jr. at their school, Mount Temple Comprehensive School, seeking musicians to form a band.^[3] The band accepted both of them. This band went through several incarnations before emerging as U2 in March 1978 (Dik Evans left the band just before the name change).^[3] U2 began performing in various venues in Ireland and eventually began developing a following. Their debut album, Boy, was released in 1980.

In 1981, leading up to the October tour, Evans came very close to leaving U2 for religious reasons, but he decided to stay.^[3] During this period, he became involved with a group called Shalom Tigers, in which bandmates Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. were also involved.^[4] Shortly after deciding to remain with the band, he wrote a piece of music that later became "Sunday Bloody Sunday".^[3] The Edge married his high school girlfriend Aislinn O'Sullivan on 12 July 1983.^[5] The couple had three daughters together: Hollie in 1984, Arran in 1985 and Blue Angel in 1989.^[4] The couple separated in 1990, but were unable to get officially divorced because of Irish laws regarding marriage annulment; divorce was legalised in 1995 and the couple were legally divorced in 1996.^[4]

In 1993, The Edge began dating Morleigh Steinberg, a professional dancer and choreographer employed by the band as a belly dancer during the Zoo TV Tour. They had a daughter, Sian (born 1997), and a son, Levi (born 25 October 1999),^[4] before marrying on 22 June 2002.^[4] He appeared in the 2009 music documentary film It Might Get Loud.^[6] The Edge has been criticized for his efforts to build five luxury mansions on a 156 acre plot of land in Malibu, California.^[7] The California Coastal Commission voted 8-4 against the plans, with the project described by the commission's executive director, Peter Douglas, as "In 38 years...one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation...It's a contradiction in terms – you can't be serious about being an environmentalist and pick this location."^[7] The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy agreed to remain neutral on the issue following a $1 million donation from The Edge and a commitment from The Edge to designate 100 acres of the land as open space for public footpaths.^[7]

Music style[link]

Guitar playing[link]

As a guitar player, The Edge has a sound typified by a low-key playing style, a chiming, shimmering sound (thanks in part to the sound of VOX AC-30s) that he achieves with extensive use of delay effects and reverb. The feedback delay is often set to a dotted eighth note (3/16 of a measure), and the feedback gain is adjusted until a note played repeats two or three times.^{[citation needed]}

On 1987's The Joshua Tree, The Edge often contributes just a few simple lead lines given depth and richness by an ever-present delay. For example, the introduction to "Where the Streets Have No Name" is simply a repeated six-note arpeggio, broadened by a modulated delay effect. The Edge has said that he views musical notes as "expensive", in that he prefers to play as few notes as possible. He said in 1982 of his style,

"I like a nice ringing sound on guitar, and most of my chords I find two strings and make them ring the same note, so it's almost like a 12-string sound. So for E I might play a B, E, E and B and make it ring. It works very well with the Gibson Explorer. It's funny because the bass end of the Explorer was so awful that I used to stay away from the low strings, and a lot of the chords I played were very trebly, on the first four, or even three strings. I discovered that through using this one area of the fretboard I was developing a very stylized way of doing something that someone else would play in a normal way."^[9]

Many different influences have shaped The Edge's guitar technique.^{[citation needed]} His first guitar was an old acoustic guitar that his mother bought him at a local flea market for only a few pounds; he was nine at the time. He and his brother Dik Evans both experimented with this instrument.^[9] He said in 1982 of this early experimentation, "I suppose the first link in the chain was a visit to the local jumble sale where I purchased a guitar for a pound. That was my first instrument. It was an acoustic guitar and me and my elder brother Dik both played it, plonking away, all very rudimentary stuff, open chords and all that."^[9] The Edge has stated that many of his guitar parts are based around guitar effects. This is especially true from the Achtung Baby era onwards, although much of the band's 1980s material made heavy use of echos.

Vocals[link]

The Edge in June 2005

The Edge also supplies the backing vocals for U2. U2's 1983 live album and video release, Under a Blood Red Sky and Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky are good reference points for his singing (as are the live DVDs from the Elevation Tour, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle and Elevation 2001: Live from Boston). For example, he sings the chorus to "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (Bono harmonizes on the final 'Sunday'). U2 used this tradeoff technique later in "Bullet the Blue Sky" as well. His backing vocals are sometimes in the form of a repeated cry; examples of songs that use this approach include "Beautiful Day", "New Year's Day" and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". Another technique he uses in his backing vocals is the falsetto, in songs such as "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own", "A Man and a Woman", "The Wanderer", live versions of "The Fly", and "Window in the Skies".

The Edge sings the lead vocal on "Van Diemen's Land" and "Numb", the first half of the song "Seconds", dual vocals with Bono in "Discotheque", and the bridge in the song "Miracle Drug".^[4] He also sings the occasional lead vocal in live renditions of other songs (such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" during the PopMart Tour and "Party Girl" during the Rotterdam Zoo TV show when it was Bono's birthday).^[10] He also plays a solo acoustic version of the song "Love is Blindness" that is featured in the documentary film From the Sky Down.

Other instruments[link]

He has played piano and keyboards on many of the band's songs, including "I Fall Down", "October", "So Cruel", "New Year's Day", "Running to Stand Still", "Miss Sarajevo", "The Hands that Built America", and "Original of the Species" and others. He plays the organ on "Please". In live versions of "New Year's Day", "The Unforgettable Fire", "Your Blue Room", and "Moment of Surrender", he plays both the piano and guitar parts alternately. In most live versions of "Original of the Species," piano is the only instrument played during the song. Although The Edge is the band's lead guitarist, he occasionally plays bass guitar, including the live performances of the song "40" where The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton switch instruments.

Solo recordings[link]

In addition to his regular role within U2, The Edge has also recorded with such artists as Johnny Cash, B. B. King, Tina Turner, Ronnie Wood, Jay-Z, and Rihanna. The Edge connected with Brian Eno and Lanois collaborator Michael Brook (the creator of the infinite guitar, which he regularly uses), working with him on the score to the film Captive (1986). From this soundtrack the song "Heroine", the vocal of which was sung by a young Sinéad O'Connor was released as a single.

He also created the theme song for season one and two of The Batman. He and fellow U2 member, Bono, wrote the lyrics to the theme of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. The Edge, along with bandmate Bono, recently composed a musical adaptation of Spider-Man. On May 25, 2011, a single titled Rise Above 1: Reeve Carney Featuring Bono and The Edge was released digitally.^[11] The music video was released on July 28, 2011.^[12]

Musical equipment[link]

Edge's 1964 Vox AC30 on stage in Foxborough for the U2 360° Tour.

The Edge plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, piano, bass guitar (on "40" and "Race Against Time") and lap steel guitar. Compared to many lead guitarists, The Edge is known for using many more guitars during a show. According to his guitar tech Dallas Schoo, a typical lead guitarist uses four or five different guitars in one night, whereas The Edge takes 45 on the road, and uses 17 to 19 in one 2.5-hour concert. He is estimated to have more than 200 guitars in the studio.^{[citation needed]}

Philanthropy[link]

In 2005, The Edge along with Bob Ezrin and Henry Juszkiewicz co-founded Music Rising, a charity that helped provide replacement instruments for those that were lost in Hurricane Katrina. The instruments were originally only replaced for professional musicians but they soon realized the community churches and schools needed instruments as well. The charity's slogan is "Rebuilding the Gulf Region note by note" and has so far helped over a hundred musicians who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. The Edge also serves on the board of the Angiogenesis Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to improving global health by advancing angiogenesis-based medicine, diets, and lifestyle.^[13]

See also[link]

• Timeline of U2
• List of people on stamps of Ireland

References[link]

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (October 2011)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Edge

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Edge

• U2.com, official U2 site
• Music Rising
• The Edge at the Internet Movie Database
• The Edge – Album Credits
• A Study of The Edge's Guitar Delay
• The Edge: 'It's all about the vision'
• Food Bank For New York City public service announcement
• Comment on the mathematical analysis of The Edge's guitar sound