The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (Hardcover... Cover Art

Bookmark for this productThis link will open in a new window

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (Hardcover)

By: Niall Ferguson (Author)

More About this Product
List Price: $29.95
Tower Price: $14.99
You Save: $14.96 (50%)
Add to BagAdd to Bag Click to go directly to the checkout.
This item qualifies for FREE Shop N' Save Shipping for orders over $25. Check individual shipping price. *Some Restrictions Apply.
Availability: On Sale - Ships in 12 Hours

Product Description

Run a Quick Search on "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World" by Niall Ferguson to Browse Related Products:

Browse more products related to "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World"

Browse more products related to "Niall Ferguson"

Review

"Although THE ASCENT OF MONEY is pockmarked by digressions (about things like the Black-Scholes model of options pricing) that many lay readers will find arcane and difficult to understand, the book as a whole is animated by Mr. Ferguson’s narrative gifts, among them his ability to discuss complex ideas in user-friendly terms. He also has a knack for illustrating his larger hypotheses with colorful stories about people like Nathan Rothschild... the Scottish economist and gambler John Law...; and the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and his so-called Chicago Boys, who helped bring economic reforms to Pinochet’s Chile."

Publisher's note

Chronicles the human drama behind the evolution of finance from its origins in Mesopotamia to the modern world's most recent upheavals, in an account that covers such topics as the stock market bubble that prompted the French Revolution, the theories behind common investment vehicles, and the reasons why the free market is failing to protect Hurricane Katrina victims. 75,000 first printing.

Annotation

Money is the root of all history--or so argues historian Niall Ferguson in his one volume world history, THE ASCENT OF MONEY. Ferguson presents a popular account of the globalized economy that has grown to dominate our age and which has fueled wars, revolutions, and "economic progress." Ferguson traces the origin of money back to the ancient Mesopotamians and reveals the economic back-story to a range of historical events. His mastery of the complicated structure of international finance and markets becomes evident in his handling of more recent history such as the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Editorial Reviews

TOWER.COM REVIEW

MORE ABOUT THIS PRODUCT

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 on what he calls Planet Finance.

Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: Call it what you like, it matters. 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 in The Ascent of Money, Niall 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 familiar historical landmarks appear in a new and sharper financial focus. Suddenly, 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. And the origins of the French Revolution are traced back to a stock market bubble caused by a convicted Scot murderer.

With the clarity and verve for which he is known, Ferguson elucidates key financial institutions and concepts by showing where they came from. What is money? What do banks do? What’s the difference between a stock and a bond? Why buy insurance or real estate? And what exactly does a hedge fund do?

This is history for the present. Ferguson travels to post-Katrina New Orleans to ask why the free market can’t provide adequate protection against catastrophe. He delves into the origins of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Perhaps most important, The Ascent of Money documents how a new financial revolution is propelling the world’s biggest countries, India and China, from poverty to wealth in the space of a single generation—an economic transformation unprecedented in human history.

Yet the central lesson of the financial history is that sooner or later every bubble bursts—sooner or later the bearish sellers outnumber the bullish buyers, sooner or later greed flips into fear. And that’s why, whether you’re scraping by or rolling in it, there’s never been a better time to understand the ascent of money.

Customer Reviews for "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (Hardcover)" by Niall Ferguson (Author)

There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!

Submit your Review

Explore More Great Tower Sales & Specials

Tower.com Sales, Promotions & Special Features

Tower.com Sales & Boutiques

Interact with Tower.com

ADVERTISEMENT