Overview

‘A breathtaking, expansive and imaginative ride through the history and future of money from an author who truly understands it’ PROFESSOR BRIAN COX ‘Exceptional’ FINANCIAL TIMES  ‘A cracking book that is as enjoyable as it is readable’ PETER FRANKOPAN ‘Equally entertaining and insightful’ YANIS VAROUFAKIS _______________________________________________________ MONEY. The object of our desires. The engine of our genius. Humanity’s greatest invention. Money is everything. It brings freedom and it takes it away. It inspires and corrupts us. But what is money? Is it the main thing holding us back from utopia or is it the one constant that’s driven us to success? In his illuminating, entertaining and often surprising book, economist David McWilliams charts the relationship between humans and money – from clay tablets in Mesopotamia to coins in Ancient Greece, from mathematics in the medieval Arab world to the French Revolution, and from the emergence of the US dollar right up to today’s cryptocurrency. Along the way, we meet a host of characters who have innovated with money, disrupting society and transforming the way we live. Like humanity, money is ever changing, adapting to its time and circumstances. The question is, over the last 5000 years, have we changed money or has money changed us? Money tells an astonishing new story of our species. Taking the reader on an epic journey through the history of money, McWilliams reveals its fundamental role in our society. _______________________________________________________ ‘An eye-opening history of what makes the world go round’ EVENING STANDARD ‘David McWilliams is the best explainer of economics I know’ SIMON KUPER 'A tour de force of economic history' GILLIAN TETT 'Compelling, funny and original' KATJA HOYER ‘If, as David McWilliams complains, economists take the fun out of money, then he is the exception that proves the rule: a man who could not write a boring sentence if he tried’ TOM HOLLAND

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9781471195433

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Reviews

‘McWilliams has a great knack for bringing a complex economics story to life. He is also funny. In economics, that's a rare and persuasive combination’  * Irish Times *

'If, as David McWilliams complains, economists take the fun out of money, then he is the exception that proves the rule: a man who could not write a boring sentence if he tried, and who, in this brilliantly informative and entertaining book, has done his subject splendid justice' -- Tom Holland ‘McWilliams has a great knack for bringing a complex economics story to life. He is also funny. In economics, that's a rare and persuasive combination’  * Irish Times * 'McWilliams’ Money is a compelling rendition of humanity’s alienated ability to shape the world in its evolving, often ugly, image. Whether you agree with its author or not, you will find Money equally entertaining and insightful' -- Yanis Varoufakis

Author Information

David McWilliams strives to demystify economics and make the topic accessible to audiences worldwide. Formerly an economist for Irish Central Bank, UBS, and Banque Nationale de Paris, he is a prolific author, podcaster, journalist, documentarian, and broadcaster. He is the founder of the world’s only economics and stand-up comedy festival, “Kilkenomics,” which the Financial Times called “the best economics conference in the world.” McWilliams has written five books, writes a weekly column for The Irish Times and contributes regularly to the Financial Times. A faculty member at Trinity Business School at Trinity College, Dublin, he’s been described as being to economics what David Attenborough is to the natural sciences and Brian Cox is to physics. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.

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