Category: Economics
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The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession (2000) by Peter Bernstein
God bless Peter Bernstein, may he rest in peace. No one else could make arcane and seemingly dull topics (e.g. the history of gold or of statistics) so fascinating and accessible. In 2009, the year of Bernstein’s death, the celebrated academic economist Niall Ferguson published a bestseller, “The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of…
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Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink (2011) by Louis Hyman
Never mind the cheesy harlequin romance novel cover, this is a serious book. Perhaps the most amazing thing about Louis Hyman’s “Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink,” the story of personal debt (namely, consumer loans, long term home mortgages, and credit cards) in twentieth century America, is that it hasn’t been written…
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When Washington Shut Down Wall Street: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America’s Monetary Supremacy (2007) by William L. Silber
The proverbial “Almighty Dollar” hasn’t always been so almighty. In fact, if you believe William Silber, it only just recently celebrated its 100th birthday. “When Washington Shut Down Wall Street: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America’s Monetary Supremacy” argues that because of a series of bold, controversial, but above all…
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Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System (2011) by Barry Eichengreen
In 1965, French Minister of Finance Valéry Giscard d’Estaing complained that the dollar’s dominance as the global reserve currency gave the United States an “exorbitant privilege.” I had heard that expression used many times before and picked up this book hoping to more fully understand the nature and extent of that privilege. Unfortunately, despite the…
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The History of Money (1997) by Jack Weatherford
In “The History of Money” anthropologist Jack Weatherford does exactly as promised, delivering a fast-paced, 2,600 year narrative of money. Weatherford breaks the story into three more-or-less equal thirds. Phase One, “Classic Cash,” traces the history of money from the first known coined currency in the western Anatolian kingdom of Lydia in 640 BC to…
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A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (2016) by Joel Mokyr
The Economist magazine recently held up “A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy” (2016) by Joel Mokyr as one of the three most outstanding books of all time in explaining the emergence of global capitalism. That’s pretty high praise. Mokyr’s writing is dense and scholarly, yet it remains remarkably lucid and accessible.…
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Grand Pursuit: The Story of the People Who Made Modern Economics (2012) by Sylvia Nasar
I first discovered Robert Heilbroner’s “The Worldly Philosophers” (1953) when I was an undergraduate majoring in economics in the mid-1990s. I was captivated by its unique blend of history, biography, and economic theory. I wasn’t alone in my fascination. “The Worldly Philosophers” is the second most successful economic book in history behind only Paul Samuelson’s…
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Hamilton’s Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt (1997) by John Steele Gordon
Non-historians often write the most readable and interesting popular history. What they lack in rigorous scholarship they more than make up for with punchy and highly engaging narratives. Some of my favorite writers in this genre are David McCollough, Candice Millard, Erik Larson, Robert Massie, and Stacy Schiff. After reading “Hamilton’s Blessing: The Extraordinary Life…
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