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Money

A Story of Humanity
Brief Description
AS HEARD ON RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKTHE INTERNATIONAL #1 BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2024 NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARA WATERSTONES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024A 2024 BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE OBSERVER, ECONOMIST, FINANCIAL TIMES AND PROSPECT β€˜A... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2999
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For readers of SAPIENS and Yanis Varoufakis, the definitive story of money and how it shaped humankind from influential global economist David McWilliams
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AS HEARD ON RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK

THE INTERNATIONAL #1 BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2024 NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

A WATERSTONES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
A 2024 BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE OBSERVER, ECONOMIST, FINANCIAL TIMES AND PROSPECT

β€˜A breathtaking, expansive and imaginative ride through the history and future of money from an author who truly understands it’ PROFESSOR BRIAN COX

β€˜Exceptional’ FINANCIAL TIMES

β€˜A cracking book that is as enjoyable as it is readable’ PETER FRANKOPAN

β€˜Equally entertaining and insightful’ YANIS VAROUFAKIS


MONEY.

The object of our desires.

The engine of our genius.

Humanity’s greatest invention.

From clay tablets in Mesopotamia to today’s cryptocurrency, global economist David McWilliams takes us on an epic journey of innovation, disruption and transformation that is an astonishing new history of our species.

The question is, over 5,000 years, have we changed money – or has money changed us?


β€˜A fun history of money told through the stories of the chancers, cheats, scoundrels and geniuses who made it happen’ KATIE MARTIN

β€˜An impressive journey that fizzes with facts’ ECONOMIST

β€˜An eye-opening history of what makes the world go round’ EVENING STANDARD

β€˜Compelling, funny and original’ KATJA HOYER

β€˜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’ TOM HOLLAND

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781471195464

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 June 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd

Illustration: 2x8pp colour plates

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 27.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 432

About the Author

David McWilliams strives to demystify economics and make the topic accessible to audiences worldwide. Formerly an economist for Irish Central Bank, UBS, and Banque Nationale de Paris, he is a prolific author, podcaster, journalist, documentarian, and broadcaster. He is the founder of the world’s only economics and stand-up comedy festival, β€œKilkenomics,” which the Financial Times called β€œthe best economics conference in the world.” McWilliams has written five books, writes a weekly column for The Irish Times and contributes regularly to the Financial Times. A faculty member at Trinity Business School at Trinity College, Dublin, he’s been described as being to economics what David Attenborough is to the natural sciences and Brian Cox is to physics. He lives in Dublin, Ireland.

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