A lighthearted chronicle of the history of money covers topics ranging from currency forms and the relationship between money and writing to the way taxes work and the practices of modern banking systems.

Money only works because we all agree to believe in it. In Money, Jacob Goldstein shows how money is a useful fiction that has shaped societies for thousands of years, from the rise of coins in ancient Greece to the first stock market in Amsterdam to the emergence of shadow banking in the 21st century. At the heart of the story are the fringe thinkers and world leaders who reimagined money. Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor, created paper money backed...

Bestselling author, economist and historian Niall Ferguson takes a look at how money evolved, from the concept of credit and debt in the Renaissance to the emergence of a global economy and the subprime crisis we face today.

From ancient currency to Adam Smith, from the gold standard to shadow banking and the Great Recession: a sweeping historical epic that traces the development and evolution of one of humankind's greatest inventions.

"Dollars & Sense" is a basic operating instruction manual for money that will teach readers about the history of money, the way our American economy works, and how to make important decisions about personal finance.

"Half fable, half manifesto, this brilliant new take on the ancient concept of cash lays bare its unparalleled capacity to empower, enchant, and control us. Frederick Kaufman tackles the complex history of money, beginning with the earliest myths and wrapping up with Wall Street's byzantine present-day doings. Along the way, he exposes a set of allegorical plots, stock characters, and stereotypical metaphors that have long been linked with money and...

"What the fight over whose image should appear on the $20 bill reveals about America's reckoning with racism, past and present. Black Movements Matter. So do the symbols that represent them. In a positive step toward greater diversity in official symbolism, on April 20, 2016, then Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced that the image of Harriet Tubman would replace that of Andrew Jackson on the face of the US twenty-dollar bill. Reflecting on the year-long...

"The financial crisis of 2008 prompted a renewed critical interest in the moral limits and the sense of justice inherent in the market economy. But while the valuable pursuits of political theorists have enabled them to speak more directly to the economic dimension of our lives, they only rarely touch on the political roots of the central institution of all market economies-money. In The Currency of Politics, political theorist Stefan Eich responds...