The triumph of money

The fascinating and convoluted history of humanity's most decisive invention: money. Updated and expanded edition

Dough, moolah, cash, bread, bucks. No matter what we call it, the truth is that money matters now more than ever. In The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson demonstrates that the history of finance is the backdrop to all of History.

When did money go from metal to paper? Why do interest rates go up and down like a yo-yo? Why do people never learn that stock market bubbles always burst? Why is insurance no longer the best way to protect against risk? Why do we overestimate the advantages of investing in real estate? The best way to understand finance is to know the origins of the different instruments, which also gives us a different view of world history from the appearance of money in ancient Babylon to the current crisis.

At the worst moment in global finance since the Great Depression of the 1930s, there has never been a more opportune time to understand the triumph (and occasional failures) of money.

Critics have said...
«Wonderfully written... Astonishingly intelligent.»
Martin Vander Weyer, Sunday Telegraph

«The stories he tells of ups and downs, of triumphs and disasters, of bubbles inflating... are the very essence of financial history.»
Bill Emmott, Financial Times

«Dazzling, extraordinarily timely.»
The Spectator

«Ferguson is the most brilliant historian of his generation. His writing is extraordinary.»
Time

«One of the best economic historians of our time.»
John Müller, El Mundo