Beware the, “I‘ll read a few pages to see if I want to commit.” What did I expect from author who regularly appears on This American Life?
#auldlangspine @Sharpeipup
Beware the, “I‘ll read a few pages to see if I want to commit.” What did I expect from author who regularly appears on This American Life?
#auldlangspine @Sharpeipup
4 stars
Great narration and actually not boring!
I‘ve always been interested in the made-up things (government, religion) that grease the wheels of human society, so I was fascinated by this book. Goldstein writes about how the belief in money as an abstract concept (paper, online banking) has jump started change and innovation. He goes back to early China and the Mongol Empire before settling in and tracing the trajectory of money from Industrial Revolution England to today.
Note ⬇️
This was pretty much as I expected -- light and breezy, able to explain things like the gold standard and the issues for the euro that came from the Greek financial situation and Germany's particular focus on exports, but not something that I'd ever cite or trust to form my opinions.
Close to a #BookSpinBingo line now, though!
Money/finance is not a particular interest of mine, but what I love is the range of non-fiction out there that lets me just dip into a topic. This book is proving not a bad way to do so: it's pretty chatty and simple, and makes things very easy to understand (e.g. the gold standard... and why it's a bad idea). It doesn't have footnotes directing you to specific sources, so I would treat it as very light and fluffy... but I'm enjoying it.
Book #68: Recently started listening to Planet Money so I thought I would check out this new book by one of the reporters!