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The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 46, 2025, Article 5

NEW BOOK: THE HISTORY OF MONEY

Every year seems to bring a new book on the history of money. It's a perennial topic that that each generation rediscovers again and again. The latest book is The History of Money: A Story of Humanity by David McWilliams. See the next article in this issue for a review. -Editor

History of Money book cover In this fresh, eye-opening global history, economist David McWilliams charts the relationship between humans and money-from clay tablets in Mesopotamia to cryptocurrency in Silicon Valley.

The story of humanity is inextricable from that of money. No innovation has defined our own evolution so thoroughly and changed the direction of our planet's history so dramatically. And yet despite money's primacy, most of us don't truly understand it.

As leading economist David McWilliams shows, money is central to every aspect of our civilization, from the political to the artistic. "Money defines the relationship between worker and employer, buyer and seller, merchant and producer. But not only that: it also defines the bond between the governed and the governor, the state and the citizen. Money unlocks pleasure, puts a price on desire, art and creativity. It motivates us to strive, achieve, invent and take risks. Money also brings out humanity's darker side, invoking greed, envy, hatred, violence and, of course, colonialism."

In The History of Money, McWilliams takes us across the world, from the birthplace of money in ancient Babylon to the beginning of trade along the Silk Road, from Marrakech markets to Wall Street. Along the way, we meet a host of innovators, emperors, frauds, and speculators, who have disrupted society and transformed the way we live. Filled with memorable anecdotes, and with a foreword by Michael Lewis, The History of Money is an essential, extremely readable history of humanity's most consequential invention.

For more information, or to order, see:
The History of Money: A Story of Humanity (https://www.amazon.com/History-Money-Humanity-foreword-Michael/dp/1250408180/)

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Wayne Homren, Editor

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The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

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