The history of money A story of humanity

Review by Booklist Review

Money has changed form over time, from precious metals to paper currency to cryptocurrency. The backing of currency has also shifted, from gold to confidence in the issuing government. Financial innovations promising easy access to money--inflating a bubble that will inevitably burst--spur on boom-and-bust economies. During WWII, Hitler and his henchman planned to use money as a weapon, air-dropping counterfeit British pounds over England with the goal of derailing society by undermining confidence in the financial system. After WWI, Germany's economy had been driven to its knees by the hyperinflation of the German mark, with this instability leading to the rise of the Third Reich. The History of Money is a spectacular, overarching view of money's progression over time and its impact on the world. Irish economist McWilliams provides enlightening particulars about how political figures through time, such as Roman Emperor Vespasian and radical French Bishop Talleyrand, became pioneers in monetary policy through the issuance of credit and government-backed bonds. A scholarly work worth more than a single read.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The evolution of money is intricately tied to major developments in politics, science, and art, according to this insightful history. Economist McWilliams (The Pope's Children) begins in ancient Sumeria, where municipal granaries functioned much like central banks, issuing long-term loans that got people thinking about the future as opportunity and about "the price of time." He moves on to the invention of coins, which democratized money by letting ordinary people shape the economy to their needs rather than elite dictates. The Roman empire, he suggests, collapsed in part because emperors reduced the silver content of coins, an early instance of inflation destroying trust in government. Medieval Florence developed fractional reserve banking, wherein banks create money by issuing loans beyond the value of their deposits, along with double-entry bookkeeping, both of which fixated European minds on precise numerical analysis in the lead-up to the Age of Reason. McWilliams goes on to cover everything from the 18th-century invention of "fiat" currency (at first a disaster leading to major market crashes, but ultimately a boon for growth) through cryptocurrency, which he describes as an "elaborate scam." Among the narrative's many fascinating asides, an account of James Joyce's financing of a Dublin movie theater prompts a rich disquisition on the resonances between entrepreneurship and art. It makes for a remarkably humanistic view of mere lucre. (Nov.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Irish economist McWilliams (Trinity Business Sch.; Renaissance Nation) offers a historical view of money and its impact on humanity. Starting with the use of simple and compound interest in ancient Sumer, the book goes on to discuss trade along China's Silk Road and ends with an examination of cryptocurrency. McWilliams makes the case that throughout history, humans adapted their needs to the exchange of money. At each stage of the development of currency, human connections established trade and fostered commercial relationships, resulting in social mobility for people across the centuries. Although some of the stories are centered in other parts of the globe, the book focuses heavily on the U.S. and Europe. Through telling stories of these interconnected parts, along with a highly engaging narrative and a dollop of humor (McWilliams is the founder of the world's only economics and stand-up comedy festival), the book traces the origins of money and finance. VERDICT A fascinating examination of civilization through the development of currency. Well suited for history and economics readers.--Jacqueline Parascandola

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

How money has made the world. Religion, technology, power, and the rise and fall of entire empires are tied up with economics and commerce in McWilliams' excellent whistle-stop tour of the way money has shaped world history. Covering centuries of innovations--from an ancient baboon femur called the Ishango Bone, possibly used for accounting, to digital-age solutions like M-Pesa, a service in Africa that turns mobile-phone credit into money--it's a blast of a book. A former Central Bank of Ireland economist who says his peers in the field "take the fun out of money," McWilliams is a clever and irreverent guide with a knack for turning economic concepts into easy conversation. "For economists, price is only a number," he writes; "for real people, price is a feeling." He takes shots at the way the elite turn up their noses at discussing money matters. "No one pretends to dislike money more than the truly posh," he says. "Beneath the snobbery is fear," he adds, "fear of usurpation" thanks to money's "ability to propel social advancement." McWilliams is skeptical of crypto, calling it "more or less an elaborate scam" that has preyed on anemic public trust in institutions. A "few tech-savvy bros issuing tokens and calling these coupons 'currency,'" he says, "is not the future of money." This isn't surprising. Here is an author who is fascinated by his subject, who holds it in esteem and sees it as second to only fire as "the crucial technology" shaping humanity for the past 5,000 years. Money emerges in the book as something almost miraculous: the connective tissue between cultures, the oxygen for innovation. It's "a kind of magic," McWilliams says, "motivating people to strive, to innovate, and ultimately to change their own personal circumstances and thereby change the world." Early in the book he claims: "Money was the first thing we wrote about." In McWilliams' hands, it's wonderful to read about. An absolute romp through history, with money--its uses and misuses--as the throughline. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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