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WAR AND GOLD

Kwasi Kwartgeng

 
 

Sub-title: A 500-year history of Empires, Adventures, and Debt, Public Affairs, n. Y., 2014, 424 pgs., index, bibliography, notes, illustrations

 
 

Reviewer's comments: The author cuts off the history of debt before 1500 - He notes that the huge increase in gold and silver generated by the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Peru was a dramatic turing point in history. His objective is to examine and analyse the causes and results of the fianaical crisis of 2008. His selection of a starting date for this analysis is a good one. The firsr chapters are critical, the author provides a clear picture, but does not expand the latent points by sufficient analysis of what he is describing.
Niall Fergson in is The Acent of Money also focuses mostly on current financial problems with some attention to the development of money-credit since the 16th century. And Felix Martin in his The Unauthorized Biogrpahy of Money provides yet another way of looking at the history of finance.

 
 

Introduction

 
 

Chapter 1 - Sweat of the Sun

 
 

Chapter 2 - Rival Nations - England and France

 
 

Chapter 3 - Revolutions

 
 

Chapter 4 - Pillars of Order

 
 

Chapter 5 - Great Republic

 
 

Chapter 6 - London 1914

 
 

Chapter 7 - Guns and Shells

 
 

Chapter 8 - Victors and Vanquished

 
 

Chapter 9 - World Crisis

 
 

Chapter 10 - Bretton Woods

 
 

Chapter 11 - Pax Americana

 
 

Chapter 12 - Weary Titans

 
 

Chapter 13 - Japan Incorporated

 
 

Chapter 14 - Imperial Retreat

 
 

Chapter 15 - The Impact of Oil

 
 

Chapter 16 - Thatcher and Regan

 
 

Chapter 17 - The Creation of the Euro

 
 

Chapter 18 - The Rise of China

 
 

Chapter 19 - Delusions of Debt

 
 

Chapter 20 - Crises and 'Bailouts'

 
 

Epilogue and Conclusion

 
     
     
     
     
     

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