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Michael Rowbotham

British author

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 10, 2025
Entity authorityQ4563296 ↗
Source-derived summary

Michael Rowbotham is a political and economic writer and commentator based in the UK who is primarily known for his two books, The Grip of Death: A Study of Modern Money, Debt Slavery, and Destructive Economics (1998) and Goodbye America (2000).

The Grip of Death

The Grip of Death: A Study of Modern Money, Debt Slavery, and Destructive Economics focuses on what he believes to be inequities in the practice of fractional-reserve banking (which he equates with counterfeiting) and the economic distortions he believes to be inherent in the so-called debt-based monetary system which almost all nations use in the modern age. In Goodbye America, Rowbotham argues that Third World debt is immoral, invalid, and inherently unrepayable.

Editorial summary

“Michael Rowbotham” enters the record as british author. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Michael, Rowbotham and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1998, 2000—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1950. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Michael, Rowbotham and British.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Michael Rowbotham” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Michael, Rowbotham and British provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4563296. VIAF identifies the subject as 31914196. The Library of Congress control number is nr99003257. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1998 and 2000.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Michael Rowbotham”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Michael Rowbotham primary sources, Michael Rowbotham archive and Michael research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Michael Rowbotham”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Michael Rowbotham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.