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The Ascent of Money by Niall FergusonLENGDUNG TUNGCHAMMA

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The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World: 10th Anniversary Edition Paperback – October 27, 2009

by Niall Ferguson (Author)

4.4 2,473 ratings

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The 10th anniversary edition, with new chapters on the crash, Chimerica, and cryptocurrency

"[An] excellent, just in time guide to the history of finance and financial crisis." —The Washington Post

"Fascinating." —Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek

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.

Editorial Reviews

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"Before regulators throw block trades, bond swaps, bridge financing, butterfly spreads and Black-Scholes out with the bathwater, they should find time to read Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money." —The Wall Street Journal

"[An] excellent, just in time guide to the history of finance and financial crisis." —The Washington Post

"Shrewdly anticipates many aspects of the current financial crisis, which has toppled banks, precipitated gigantic government bailouts and upended global markets." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Fascinating." —Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek

"Good old-fashioned narrative history, complete with heroes and villains, visionaries and scoundrels." —James Pressley, Bloomberg

About the Author

Niall Ferguson is one of the world's most renowned historians. He is the author of Paper and Iron, The House of Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus, The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, High Financier, Civilization, The Great Degeneration, Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, and The Square and the Tower. He is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. His many awards include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service (2010), the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism (2013).

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (October 27, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143116177
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143116172
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.48 x 1.06 x 8.44 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #21,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #27 in Economic Conditions (Books)
- #44 in Economic History (Books)
- #420 in World History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 2,473 ratings

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Niall Ferguson

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Niall Ferguson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, former Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and current senior fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and founder and managing director of advisory firm Greenmantle LLC. The author of 15 books, Ferguson is writing a life of Henry Kissinger, the first volume of which—Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist—was published in 2015 to critical acclaim. The World's Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild won the Wadsworth Prize for Business History. Other titles include Civilization: The West and the Rest, The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die and High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg. Ferguson's six-part PBS television series, "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World," based on his best-seller, won an International Emmy for best documentary in 2009. Civilization was also made into a documentary series. Ferguson is a recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Service as well as other honors. His most recent book is The Square and the Tower: Networks on Power from the Freemasons to Facebook (2018).

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Customers say

Customers find the book well-written and informative, providing historical examples to help understand the content. They appreciate the insightful narrative that traces finance from its infancy to the current state of global capital markets. The narrative is described as fascinating and entertaining, with skillful prose and details. Readers appreciate the accuracy and thorough research of the book. However, opinions differ on the pacing, with some finding it fast-paced and engaging, while others feel it's slow.

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Readability Informative History of money Interest Story quality Accuracy Pacing

188 customers mention "Readability"165 positive23 negative

Customers find the book well-written and engaging. They appreciate the concise and clear explanations of historical events and important aspects of money and monetary systems. The content is amazing and full of historical events that everyone must know. Readers find the last chapter an excellent summary of why people and markets are so volatile. Overall, it's a great read for any closet economist or Wall Street disciple.

"...Ferguson has the ability to open up the broad sweep of history with easy terms and lots of facts to portray a clear picture...." Read more

"...Ferguson has a remarkable and rare ability to take a difficult and even abstruse subject like the history of money and make it fascinatingly..." Read more

"...interest at all in the subjects of money and/or banking, this book is a pure delight...." Read more

"Wow, can Niall Ferguson write like an angel. Ascent of Money really carries you along, combining great stories with nitty-gritty financial details...." Read more

135 customers mention "Informative"125 positive10 negative

Customers find the book informative and insightful. They say it explains everything with historical examples, making it easier to understand. The book provides a good overview of how we got from metal coins to modern financial institutions. It's packed with factual data and gives motivation and pointers for further inquiry.

"...His ability to summarize the broad sweep of history in using easy language for non-academics is on display in many of his books...." Read more

"...this is a small flaw in an otherwise very impressive and perfectly comprehensive summary of where money comes from and why understanding its ascent..." Read more

"...Could you find a book that is more packed with factual data and more meticulous in its assessments? Yes...." Read more

"Learning of finances through the perspective of events and history was quite entertaining...." Read more

118 customers mention "History of money"106 positive12 negative

Customers find the book provides valuable insights into the financial world. It traces finance from its infancy to the current state of global capital markets. Readers describe it as an entertaining read that covers the history of money from Mesopotamian times to the present.

"...Within the narrative we get the broad sweep of many of the greatest economists including Adam Smith, Friedrich von Hayek, Ludvig von Mises, Joseph..." Read more

"...Money has ancient roots and its rise is inextricably intertwined with the rise of human civilization, and Prof. Ferguson explores the entire grand..." Read more

"Wow, can Niall Ferguson write like an angel. Ascent of Money really carries you along, combining great stories with nitty-gritty financial details...." Read more

"...What makes the book fascinating is how he looks at major world events through a financial lens, explains how financial changes, innovation, and..." Read more

34 customers mention "Interest"31 positive3 negative

Customers find the book interesting and easy to understand. They find the subject matter fascinating and engaging, with an insightful perspective from a European perspective.

"...and Prof. Ferguson explores the entire grand story in this compelling, engaging and superbly readable history...." Read more

"...than nowadays, and fortunately we have this clearly written and fascinating but scholarly work by Niall Ferguson...." Read more

"...The book is targeted at the layman, and it is a fun and easy read for someone with no financial background at all...." Read more

"...This is interesting and, viewed from the appropriate perspective--frightening...." Read more

13 customers mention "Story quality"13 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the story quality of the book. They find the narrative fascinating and easy to read, with superb prose and details. The author is a skilled storyteller, skillfully combining historic persons and tales of men. The narrative is interlaced with tales of money handling in creative ways. Readers appreciate the book's non-fiction format, which makes the complex subject easy to understand.

"...The book's divisions into major themes that are covered by the author via a series of historical anecdotes provides a very illuminating "high level..." Read more

"...I particularly like reading the real story behind people like the Rothschild's and Milton Friedman's theories...." Read more

"...The narrative is interlaced with tales of men, who contributed to or were destructive of these systems, institutions and/or countries and as always..." Read more

"...What an amazing book to read. It's full of stories of how and why things happened in history...." Read more

6 customers mention "Accuracy"6 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's accuracy and thoroughness. They find it informative, easy to follow, and authoritative. The author is described as unbiased and well-researched.

"...find a book that is more packed with factual data and more meticulous in its assessments? Yes...." Read more

"...His takes are largely accurate; 5 stars for content, 3 stars for cohesion, collectively 4 stars." Read more

"very well informed and clear as well as unbiased in a era where kindness obfuscates the truth, he says things which could be uncomfortable for being..." Read more

"...He is a joy to read as his writing is clear, precise and informative - all at same time. I recommend him to one and all!" Read more

23 customers mention "Pacing"14 positive9 negative

Customers have different views on the book's pacing. Some find it brilliant, clear, and relevant to today's headlines. Others find it dry, uninteresting, and superficial.

"This book is a must read for everyone as it sheds light on a lot of things that many people do not know at all about money and finance...." Read more

"...I did not expect a comprehensive history, but the selection was minimalist, often skewed, and the events were more often than not presented in a..." Read more

"...In short a delightful and well written "armchair overview" of financial history. Highly recommended." Read more

"...It is lighter in voice and darker in theme...." Read more

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Marion
Entertaining historical narrative
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2016
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The genius of history Professor Ferguson, of Harvard University and the Hoover Institute, is widely acclaimed. His ability to summarize the broad sweep of history in using easy language for non-academics is on display in many of his books.
Note: this book is not without its critics, particularly among Economists, who can be a cantankerous lot with a wide variety of political viewpoints. The book succeeds as a historical narrative and does not lay claim to technical economic exposition.
Ferguson has the ability to open up the broad sweep of history with easy terms and lots of facts to portray a clear picture. The pertinent statistics that abound in his narrative are particularly helpful in clarifying the history and impact of money. Beginning with money lenders in ancient Mesopotamia (a beginning form of credit) the author shows us how the ascent of money has been essential to the ascent of mankind.
The ascent of money is described as an evolutionary process with development throughout history of new mediums of exchange. Capital mutations bring about the creation of new markets and new products, which are created by a system under capitalism, which provides growth in the monetary system to accommodate economic growth and expansion of the population. One example of the ongoing change in the world of business and technology that is cited: of the 100 largest private companies in the year 1919 only 29 remained in the top 100 by the year 2000.
The author shows us the development of new tools in the supply of money from barter systems to using commodities as money, to the first coins in the Mediterranean region (600BC), to the Inca Empire which had no money (presumably applauded by Karl Marx but not John Lennon), to precious metals backed by coinage in the era of Pizarro, to the introduction of banking systems with the Medici Empire in 15th Century Florence, to the introduction of stocks, bonds, insurance, and international money markets, and to the subprime mortgage debacle.
Within the narrative we get the broad sweep of many of the greatest economists including Adam Smith, Friedrich von Hayek, Ludvig von Mises, Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Marx, Frank Knight, JM Keynes, and Milton Friedman.
The Author asserts that the basis of money is TRUST. National currencies therefore float in value compared to other currencies depending upon international confidence and expected stability. Credit also is dependent upon the commitment that loans will be repaid. According to the author with other things being equal, more “money” only increases prices and does not enrich a nation.
One theory espoused by a number of individuals in popular discourse is the world would be better off if there were no money! The author does not refute this argument directly, perhaps assuming that his readers are schooled in basic economics. Economic history teaches that in a culture where there is no money, a monetary system is created in order that goods and services can be exchanged between individuals. Only if no item in the culture has any value would there be no need for money. If anything, perhaps the life of an individual, does have value then there would arise the desire for a monetary system in order to protect or exchange the items of value between individuals. Ferguson does mention the “no money” topic regarding both Karl Marx and the Inca civilization. Little is known about the Inca Empire except that its time of prosperity was very short. Marxism seemed to flourish during the first half of the twentieth century but seemed to collapse by the end of the century, with many formerly Communist or socialist nations moving back toward widespread property rights and capitalism.

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The Garden Interior
Where Does Money Come From?
Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2014
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Where does money come from? Like many of the fundamental building blocks of civilization – agriculture, writing, numbers, commerce – it turns out that it comes from Mesopotamia. Around 5,000 years ago, transactions were recorded there on clay tablets, which were the earliest forms of money known to human civilization. This according to Niall Ferguson, the justly celebrated, English-educated Harvard history professor.

The world’s first coins were minted in the Greek empire in what is now Turkey, about 2,600 years ago. As it happens, as I write this, I have a 2,300-year-old Greek silver coin that I wear around my neck. It has a bee on the obverse and a deer on the reverse. It was minted at Ephesus in Anatolia 300 years before the Apostle John lived there and wrote his world-changing Gospel. Money has ancient roots and its rise is inextricably intertwined with the rise of human civilization, and Prof. Ferguson explores the entire grand story in this compelling, engaging and superbly readable history.

Ferguson has a remarkable and rare ability to take a difficult and even abstruse subject like the history of money and make it fascinatingly intelligible, even entertaining. This impressive book began life as a television series for Channel 4 in the UK and on PBS in the U.S. It draws to a close as the appalling Great Recession of 2008 is getting under way in earnest, a coincidence that underscores why understanding money and how it flows through the tissues and sinews of the global economy, is time well spent and of the first importance.

Ferguson begins with the earliest forms of money and the origins of banking, then moves on to bonds and the creation of debt structures. After that comes a fascinating chapter on bubbles and on the rise of insurance to ameliorate risk. These are followed by chapters on real estate and the massive modern globalization trends that have created the bipolar financial world that he calls Chimerica, organized around the enormous economies of China and the US. It sounds rather dry to list the chapter topics this way, but each is told in fascinating detail and with a lively anecdotal wit that keep the subject from getting anywhere near the tedious mark. One criticism: Ferguson’s afterword should have been an opportunity for a brilliant look-back on the financial crisis of 2008, but instead it is a rather rambling discourse on whether markets are truly evolutionary. It lacks the acuity and clarity of the rest of the book and would better have been left out, I thought. But this is a small flaw in an otherwise very impressive and perfectly comprehensive summary of where money comes from and why understanding its ascent is important to each one of us.

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James A. Kostohryz
A literary masterpiece in the genre.
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2024
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If you have any interest at all in the subjects of money and/or banking, this book is a pure delight. Indeed, it will probably be a delight even for those that have no special interest in those subjects. Could you find a book that is more packed with factual data and more meticulous in its assessments? Yes. But on these topics, it would be very difficult to produce a more interesting read than this.

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Humberto M.
Verdaderamente excelente
Reviewed in Mexico on May 20, 2022
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Como cultura general se me hizo un libro maravilloso. Lo único que debo decir es que si no saben de finanzas, se les va a hacer muy complejo el libro. No es que sea técnico, pero si necesitas unas buenas bases, sobre todo si no eres estadounidense. A mí me gusto bastante.

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Davide Aresu
Wonderful, insightful.
Reviewed in Italy on August 18, 2021
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Really good book, though it could be a little shorter

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Cliente Kindle
Mais atual do que nunca
Reviewed in Brazil on June 20, 2020
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Nada mais imperfeito e instável quanto a moeda; o humano, também.
Niall Ferguson, sempre extremamente esclarecedor, nos ilustra um quadro de que a moeda veio para ficar, e nada mais natural do que choques financeiros.

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Manel C.
Magnífico viaje por la historia del mundo financiero
Reviewed in Spain on September 29, 2017
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Magnífico viaje por la historia del mundo financiero, desde una perspectiva distinta a la económica tradicional. Explicaciones claras y amenas. Lectura más que recomendable.

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Amazon Customer
Educational and easy to read
Reviewed in Australia on January 27, 2023
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Need to be financial educated to protect your wealth

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