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The ascent of money : a financial history of the world / Niall Ferguson.

Ferguson, Niall.
2008
332.09 F353a 2008
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Title
The ascent of money : a financial history of the world / Niall Ferguson.
Author
Ferguson, Niall.
ISBN
1594201927
9781594201929
9781410415332 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1410415333 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Imprint
New York : Penguin Press, 2008.
Language
English
Description
v, 441 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Call Number
332.09 F353a 2008
System Control No.
(OCoLC)191929255
(OCoLC)191929255
Summary
Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals. 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 labor. But historian Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress. What's more, he reveals financial history as the essential backstory behind all history. Through Ferguson's expert lens, for example, the civilization of the Renaissance looks very different: a boom in the market for art and architecture made possible when Italian bankers adopted Arabic mathematics. The rise of the Dutch republic is reinterpreted as the triumph of the world's first modern bond market over insolvent Habsburg absolutism. Yet the central lesson of financial history is that, sooner or later, every bubble bursts.--From publisher description.
Note
TV tie-in.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 363-397) and index.
Formatted Contents Note
Introduction
1. Dreams of avarice
2. Of human bondage
3. Blowing bubbles
4. The return of risk
5. Safe as houses
6. From empire to Chimerica
Afterword : The descent of money
Acknowledgements
Notes
List of illustrations
Index.
Record Appears in
Books > Print Books
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