The Ascent of Money

Niall Ferguson (2008)

An account of the rise and evolution of modern finance.

Proviso: I’ve been warned about Ferguson: “a lot of people have a lot of bad things to say about Ferguson and his hard money and American Empire (as a continuation of the British Empire) loving views. See http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/the-age-of-niallism-ferguson-and-the-post-fact-world/261395/ & http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/niall-british-empire-is-over-accept-it.html for a flavour.”