Overview

MONEY. The object of our desires. The engine of our genius. Humanity’s greatest invention. Whether we like it or not, our world revolves around money, but we rarely stop to think about it. What is money, where does it come from, and can it run out? What is this substance that drives trade, revolutions and discoveries; inspires art, philosophy and science? In this illuminating, sometimes irreverent, and often surprising journey, economist David McWilliams charts the relationship between humans and money – from a tally stick in ancient Africa to coins in Republican 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 and beyond. Along the way, we meet a host of characters who have innovated with money, disrupting society and changing the way we live, in an ongoing monetary evolution that has, for the last 5000 years, animated human progress. McWilliams unlocks the mysteries and power of money, explaining why it matters and how it shapes our world. The story of money is the story of earth’s most inventive, destructive, and dangerous animal: Homo sapiens. It is our story. ‘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

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9781471195440

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Reviews

'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 ‘A breathtaking, expansive and imaginative ride through the history and future of Money from an author who truly understands it. If, like me, you’ve never quite figured out where money comes from or even what it is, this is the book for you’   -- Professor Brian Cox 'Equally entertaining and insightful' -- Yanis Varoufakis 'Pacey chapters make for a series of entertaining – and at times irreverent – tales which relay a story of money that we all should know!' -- Linda Yueh, author of The Great Crashes: Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent Them ‘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 * 'Pacey chapters make for a series of entertaining – and at times irreverent – tales which relay a story of money that we all should know!' -- Linda Yueh, author of The Great Crashes: Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent Them ‘David McWilliams is the best explainer of economics I know. Here he explains the world through money, and it’s fantastically entertaining. He's the kind of writer who makes you feel clever, because he helps you grasp things you never understood before’ -- Simon Kuper, author of 'Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories took over the UK' ‘A timely, fascinating account of how money has powered life on our planet from Ireland’s superstar economist. Money is so often shrouded in secrecy and manipulated by forces we barely understand, so it’s refreshing to read a book that traces our relationship with it with such healthy irreverence!’  -- Mariella Frostrup ‘McWilliams is charismatic, free flowing, unflaggingly engaging’  -- Fintan O’Toole

'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 'Pacey chapters make for a series of entertaining – and at times irreverent – tales which relay a story of money that we all should know!' -- Linda Yueh, author of The Great Crashes: Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent Them

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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