The History of Money: A Story of Humanity

David McWilliams

Hardcover

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"Learned, lively and often irreverent, David McWilliams's The History of Money is rich with surprising details about currency, then and now."
--The New York Times

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.

Book Details

Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Publish Date: Nov 11st, 2025
Pages: 416
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 9.50in - 6.50in - 1.40in - 1.40lb
EAN: 9781250408181
Categories: • Economic History• Money & Monetary Policy• World - General

About the Author

McWilliams, David: - David McWilliams is a former central bank economist based In Dublin. He hosts The David McWilliams Podcast and is the founder of the world's only economics and stand-up comedy festival, "Kilkenomics," described by the Financial Times as "simply, the best economics conference in the world." McWilliams also writes a weekly column for The Irish Times and is adjunct professor of global economics at Trinity College Dublin.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"Learned, lively and often irreverent, David McWilliams's The History of Money is rich with surprising details about currency, then and now."
--The New York Times

"The History of Money is the rare economics book that reads like a thriller."
--New York Post

"Money has found its greatest biographer. The subject of this book has spent most of its life on the run from being well understood. At least until now. In this swashbuckling epic of grand sweeps and tight close ups, David McWilliams brilliantly excavates the history of money, which is our history too. Evolution and revolution. He is a master storyteller of rare talent."
--Bono

"'Most economists do not really understand money... They take the fun out of it.' Thus begins Irish economist David McWilliams's rollicking ride through the pecuniary past. From the 20,000-year-old Ishango Bone (the first known accounting instrument) to today's M-Pesa (Kenya's mobile phone payments system), the reader is whisked at the speed of a Weimar printing press through the history of financial evolution. If Flann O'Brien and Milton Friedman had ever collaborated, this might have been the result. I was entertained. But I also learned."
--Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money

"It's a crime, it can't buy me love, it's the root of all evil, it makes the world go around, it's what I want. Money has long been the subject of song and sayings. And now, at last, we have The History of Money: a clear and endlessly fascinating explanation of what this is all about and how it all works."
--Steven Pinker, Harvard University, author of When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...

"A cracking book that is as enjoyable as it is readable."
--Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

"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, author of Dominion