The Ascent of Money : A Financial History of the World - Hardcover

Ferguson Nigel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846141060 ISBN 13: 9781846141065

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2008

Synopsis

Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, it's the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it's the chains of labour. But in The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress. What's more, he reveals financial history as the essential back-story behind all history. The evolution of credit and debt was as important as any technological innovation in the rise of civilization, from ancient Babylon to the silver mines of Bolivia. Banks provided the material basis for the splendours of the Italian Renaissance, while the bond market was the decisive factor in conflicts from the Seven Years' War to the American Civil War. With the clarity and verve for which he is famed, Niall Ferguson explains why the origins of the French Revolution lie in a stock market bubble caused by a convicted Scots murderer. He shows how financial failure turned Argentina from the world's sixth richest country into an inflation-ridden basket case - and how a financial revolution is propelling the world's most populous country from poverty to power in a single generation. Yet the most important lesson of the financial history is that sooner or later every bubble bursts - sooner or later the bearish sellers outnumber the bullish buyers - sooner or later greed flips into fear. And that's why, whether you're scraping by or rolling in it, there's never been a better time to understand the ascent of money.

About this title

About the Author

Niall Ferguson is one of the world's most renowned historians. He is the author of Paper and Iron, The House of Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus, The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, High Financier, Civilization, The Great Degeneration, Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, and The Square and the Tower. He is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. His many awards include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service (2010), the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism (2013).

From AudioFile

Who knew there was a financial subtext to MARY POPPINS? Niall Ferguson--apparently--who explains that the children's classic makes the important point about banking that a bank's success is based on a fragile faith. And it's that same faith--in coins, in paper, and now in virtual banking--that lets us believe that money exists even though we don't much see it anymore. Written before the current downturn, yet seeming to predict it, the book explains that the popping sound you hear is when the "belief bubble" bursts (and Ferguson profiles some massive bubble makers). Narrator Simon Prebble moves along this metaphysical history of dinero with command, authority, and a BBC accent. His tone and timing add an element of class to the project. It's sort of like sitting in on a really fab Oxford lecture. R.W.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1846141060
• ISBN 13: 9781846141065
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 464