Niall Ferguson

Chronicles the evolution of finance from its origins in Mesopotamia to the modern world's most recent upheavals, covering such topics as the stock market bubble that prompted the French Revolution and the theories behind common investment vehicles.

A Financial History of the World

The Ascent of Money

The 10th anniversary edition, with new chapters on the crash, Chimerica, and cryptocurrency In this updated edition, Niall Ferguson brings his classic financial history of the world up to the present day, tackling the populist backlash that followed the 2008 crisis, the descent of "Chimerica" into a trade war, and the advent of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, with his signature clarity and expert lens. The Ascent of Money reveals finance as the backbone of history, casting a new light on familiar events: the Renaissance enabled by Italian foreign exchange dealers, the French Revolution traced back to a stock market bubble, the 2008 crisis traced from America's bankruptcy capital, Memphis, to China's boomtown, Chongqing. We may resent the plutocrats of Wall Street but, as Ferguson argues, the evolution of finance has rivaled the importance of any technological innovation in the rise of civilization. Indeed, to study the ascent and descent of money is to study the rise and fall of Western power itself.

Keven Wang

Anyone who seeks financial literacy needs to read this book

a financial history of the world

The ascent of money

Ben Radford

Ferguson's tour de force of global financial history is a riveting primer tracing the undulations of the major financial developments from capital markets to insurance, and from the East India Company to Wall Street.

Luke Kanies

A fantastic, edifying, enjoyable read. I'm skeptical of the lens it provides -- that access to capital is a major driver of most world events, including most wars you've heard of -- but I deeply appreciate having that lens, and I have a much better sense of why money works the way it does, and how it affects how our world works as a result.

Lots of education, good writing, interesting anecdotes, and a good dose of history thrown in.

Jeni Enjaian

I waited too long to write my review of this book. I do remember that I really wanted to like this book. I work in banking and not having any previous financial training am intrigued by this topic. However, I do have historiographical training and on that front this book was almost a complete disaster. Ferguson's stories, on their own, are fascinating. However, they do not fit into any logical framework. The title is incredibly deceiving. I expected a history of money, or at least modern finance. What I got was a random conglomeration of different major financial stories over the past hundred years or so. One of the only reasons that I kept listening was that I couldn't get enough of the narrator's Scottish accent. I definitely don't recommend this book.

The Ascent of Money A Financial History of the World

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