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Daniel Yergin's first prize-winning book, Shattered Peace, was a history of the Cold War. Afterwards the young academic star joined the energy project of the Harvard Business School and wrote the best-seller Energy Future. Following on from there,
The Prize, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction, is a comprehensive history of one of the commodities that powers the world--oil. Founded in the 19th century, the oil industry began producing kerosene for lamps and progressed to gasoline. Huge personal fortunes arose from it, and whole nations sprung out of the power politics of the oil wells. Yergin's fascinating account sweeps from early robber barons like John D. Rockefeller, to the oil crisis of the 1970s, through to the Gulf War.
Book Description
Pulitzer Prize Winner -- and Now an Epic PBS Series
The Prize recounts the panoramic history of oil -- and the struggle for wealth power that has always surrounded oil. This struggle has shaken the world economy, dictated the outcome of wars, and transformed the destiny of men and nations. The Prize is as much a history of the twentieth century as of the oil industry itself. The canvas of this history is enormous -- from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Operation Desert Storm.
The cast extends from wildcatters and rogues to oil tycoons, and from Winston Churchill and Ibn Saud to George Bush and Saddam Hussein. The definitive work on the subject of oil and a major contribution to understanding our century, The Prize is a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement -- and great importance.
Customer Reviews:
First to cover the topic, but still a facile book.......2007-09-17
Yergen gets kudos for being the first to cover this topic, but his account (perhaps because it's now outdated) is facile and pro-oil company. Every time the oil companies are thwarted he seems to blame straw men for it: tree huggers, the people that hounded poor misunderstood Tricky Dick Nixon, the Saudi sheiks (best friends of Bush, Cheney, et al). He never turns his gaze on the corruption of the oil companies themselves. We hit peak oil in the U.S. in the 1960s. The oil companies suppressed any attempts since then to find alternative fuels. Now we are up the creek, so to speak, with the Oil Men running the Show. Some "Prize". I'd say it's the booby prize. The best overview of our current fix is Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower.
The Age of Oil.......2007-07-04
We are living in the Age of oil.
World and human civilization have experienced different "ages" such as the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Gilded Age, and so on. The 20th and 21st Centuries are indeed, the "Oil Age." We are living in it. This book is one of the most informative and relevant books published in recent years, In my opinion. This work by Daniel Yergin was and still is prescient today, in 2007. "The Prize" tells the story of where we are today, and how we got here. It also latently foresees where we're going in the future. The book doesn't tell us - we just know. We're human. This book is so comprehensive and has so much information only a small portion of it can be noted. Below relates to WWII, and former Iranian leader Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh.
"The Prize" proceeds chronologically. And within the chapters there are numerous mini-subtitles for sub-chapters that connect the big picture. The bibliography and index are excellent and can be used to tie in different figures and historical occurrences. The 'history of oil' is actually the history of the world: humankind, business, innovations, globalization, war, and geo-political power-plays. The very survival of a nation-state is based upon oil.
"The Prize" begins with tiny puddles of black, sticky, goo, in Pennsylvania in the mid 1800s. Locals collected this goo and realized its many uses. In 1859 oil was struck. Almost immediately, the wealth and power amassed from possession and control of oil was realized. The initial trust acts in the U.S. are related to the oil industry, in which Barons quickly gained gargantuan amounts of wealth and political power.
Enter WWII:
The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor because of oil. Japanese conquests throughout South-East Asia and the Pacific were motivated not only by the quest for dominance but for securing oil and keeping their oil (fuel) supply lines open. Without supply lines of oil, the war machine would completely break down, as it later did (Chapter 8).
The Americans sacrificed a lot, but Japan in large part lost WWII because of its lack of fuel for planes, ships, and ground forces. Domestically, the Japanese economy collapsed because of its inability to import oil. The Kamikazes were brought into existence after the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Philippines, in 1944. Lack of oil meant lack of fighter plane fuel. Fuel supplies became so low they actually stopped training Japanese pilots at all. Pilots were ordered to "follow the leader" to the attack site because they didn't even have navigation training.
There was even an "Oil Czar" In the U.S. during World War II in PAW, the Petroleum Administration for War. The Oil Czar was Harold Ickes.
In the European Theater's Eastern Front Germany invaded Russia with Operation Barbarossa mostly to get the oil in the Caucuses (In addition to "lebensraum" and "untermensch" beliefs). In addition, a needed land-route to Iron Ore in Scandinavia via the Baltic SSR Republics was a factor. Hitler also began making synthetic oil because without enough of it Germany's war machine, domestic economy, and arms production were doomed. These synthetic oil factories were top targets in Allied bombing missions.
Oil and the Cold War World:
The Soviets dominated Eastern Europe and exerted its influence after WWII for 45 years because the Allies ran out of gasoline. When the British 3rd Army and U.S. 1st Army were advancing eastward toward Berlin chasing demoralized, retreating, and broken German troops in disarray. But because of the lack of gasoline for the Allied Armies, a million people ended up losing their lives and war was prolonged because the Germans were able to retreat and re-organize (page 388).
If someone says "it's not about the oil" today in 2007, tell them to read this book. Oil encompasses almost all things in our daily lives, whether we are are conscious of it, or not.
Oil, Military, and Economic Interests:
Democratically elected governments are overthrown by foreign governments because of oil. In 1953 Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was democratically elected in Iran. He was an anti-communist. He didn't like the 93% to 7% profit sharing split with a British Oil company operating inside Iran. He changed it to 50-50. The CIA sponsored a coup to overthrow him. Americans were repeatedly told by the U.S. media that Mossadegh was a communist and communist sympathizer, although factually untrue. The American public believed this propaganda, according to poll results. Gullible? Mossadegh was ousted and the Shah was placed in power. Democracy has never been supported in the Middle East and it isn't now by the U.S. government. Also see the Carter Doctrine of 1980.
Most of us as individual consumers literally need oil to function. Dependence upon oil is for the continuation of the nation-state, its military machines, and domestic economy. More critical today, is that nation-states need a *sufficient* supply of it.
This is a positive book. It's a history book.
We're in the heart of the "Oil Age."
Amaze.......2007-06-19
This book is the better form to say what means the oil in the world. The history is well clear end real. There are many important information and who is curious or needs to know the subject this is a perfect one.
It's interesting to know the past to forecast the future..........2007-06-14
I really appreciated Daniel YERGIN's book.
The history of oil is crucial to try to solve the huge demand for future oil. History tells us that oil is limitless in virgin deserts...
The Prize : The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power.......2007-06-12
Excellent, well chronicled book showing the inside of the oil world history. Amazon shipment was a slick execution which makes the book more valuable..This book is a must-have for oil and gas pros.
Book Description
An explosive examination of the coalition of forces that threatens the nation, from the bestselling author of American Dynasty
In his two most recent bestselling books, American Dynasty and Wealth and Democracy, Kevin Phillips established himself as a powerful critic of the political and economic forces that rule—and imperil—the United States, tracing the ever more alarming path of the emerging Republican majority's rise to power. Now Phillips takes an uncompromising view of the current age of global overreach, fundamentalist religion, diminishing resources, and ballooning debt under the GOP majority. With an eye to the past and a searing vision of the future, Phillips confirms what too many Americans are still unwilling to admit about the depth of our misgovernment.
Customer Reviews:
Well researched and balanced.......2007-09-16
There is (I think) a growing group of people who call themselves Republicans but are increasingly disgusted with the people who lead the Republican party, and the direction that they take both the party and the nation. I am one of those who has been increasingly disaffected for years, and Kevin Phillips appears to be as well based on his recent writing. I am a long-time fan of Mr. Phillips, as someone who has the courage to see something that he has in the past and still wants to identify with unravel and decline in front of him, and give voice to the frustration, as well as the fear for where this alarming trend might take us.
The book takes the reader through a well-detailed account of how we have reached this point, and where this likely leads. The "here" that Mr. Phillips outlines is a country where the dominant political party in the country has entered into a "great alliance" with the dominant religious organizations in the country in order to maintain joint dominance. The religious organizations benefit by continuing to assure that their agenda's are met by the politicians, while the political party benefits by keeping the eye of the governed off of the rape and pillage that is going on within the political apparatus. The focus weaves this involvement of the extreme right-wing fundamentalist clerics through all aspects of government, focusing in particular on the debt that has resulted and the foreign oil dependence that continues to drive most decisions, plunging the nation further into debt, resulting in increasing profits from those few who "own" that industry.
The historical aspects of the book were excellent, helping the reader to understand how we got where we are, as well as making it clear where history would advise that all nations end up when they get on the path that we have put ourselves on. It is not a comforting picture. I have given the book 4 stars because while the message and content are excellent and timely, I do think that the writing became just a little disjointed and rambled down some alleys at times. I would still highly recommend this book.
Sharp, Not Balanced, But An Important Read .......2007-09-15
Former Republican strategist, Kevin Phillips, believes he knows what is wrong with our nation. Chances are, by very virtue of your reading a book review on a Christian e-zine, you contribute to the erosion of our national health. American Theocracy: The Politics and Peril of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century is at times scathing and at times coolly analytical in its survey of dangers Phillips sees threatening our superpower status.
Part I examines the effects of America's dependency on oil. Our industry, automobiles, and military have an insatiable appetite for oil. Phillips argues that this energy dependency gives Big Oil too much sway over our domestic and foreign policies. At home we lax our environmental laws to accommodate oil drilling. And abroad we resort to international thuggery to secure control of Iraq's mostly untapped oil fields. "The war on terror?", "Importing democracy to the Middle East?" Phillips sees these as slogans to sell an imperialistic war.
In Part II: "Too Many Preachers", Phillips takes aim at Christian Fundamentalism, a movement the he sees embodied by the Southern Baptist Convention, Pentecostals, and the charismatic movements. Phillips chronicles these denominations rise to prominence and how they shape national politics. The culture wars are provoked by radical Christians attempting to establish a theocracy--a Christian America governed by God's rules. "Disenlightenment" is Phillip's descriptor for the effect that these empowered believers have on our country: They value faith over science and a literal Armageddon over peace.
Phillips closes his diatribe with Part III on our national and individual debt. Again, Phillips provides a valuable historic context at how debt played a role in the decline of England, Spain, and the Netherlands as superpowers. Phillips offers an undeniable outline of the depths of our national debt as well as personal credit lodes. He argues that our increasing debt and decreasing hard industry has created a thin ice that will eventual give in under our largesse.
American Theocracy finds its value when Phillips is able to sustain his analytical voice, and he's able to do so for extended periods of time. His historical perspective on our oil dependency, the changing face of American religion, and our national debt demand your attention. I'll confess, as an evangelical with political tendencies a few notches right of centrist, this was uncomfortable stuff to read. Even so, Phillips places important issues on the table.
However when Phillips slips into his polemic voice the book becomes tedious. Phillips has open contempt for people superstitious enough to buy into the Biblical creation account, Noah Arc, or a literal interpretation of Revelation, such as the one popularized by the Left Behind franchise. Phillips also makes too many gaps in his evidence with clauses like, "Although the evidence is weak." He's on a mission to connect the dots and is willing to supply any missing points along the way.
Make no mistake; Kevin Phillips wields too much anger and bias to be objective. But are there any takeaways for the evangelical and fundamentalist Christian communities?
I think so. American Theocracy provokes us to ask several poignant questions:
-- Have we developed what Phillip's calls "American Exceptionalism"; a belief that America has an exclusive blessing from God? How does this belief influence our foreign policy?
-- Does our theology concerning the end times make us overly tolerant of military interventions in the Middle East? ("The faster we get to Armageddon the faster we get to heaven.")
-- Should the political arena our primary method of advancing God's kingdom on Earth? Does Jesus truly expect that we establish an "American Theocracy?"
I won't pretend to offer the final word on these questions. Instead, I just note that in spite of all the book's weaknesses, American Theocracy provides the agenda for an important conversation that's long overdue
One of the Best Books I Have Ever Read.......2007-08-19
I read this book 3 times and have encouraged others to read it. I rarely read any book more than once but this one was so thought provoking. Some reviews stress the chapters about religion but the book is so much more than that. Religion has NOTHING to do with the debt which is dragging this country down which is a chapter all its own. There is also a chapter on consumer debt which is dragging us as individuals and families down. Anyone who is worried about the financial state of this country should read this book.
Superb account of the state of the USA.......2007-08-06
This outstanding book is the best study of the current state of the USA. Kevin Phillips, the vastly experienced American political and economic commentator, depicts the USA's economic and religious interest-groups and their effects on the Republican coalition. For this paperback edition, he has written a brilliant 40-page introduction updating his 2006 analysis.
He shows how deindustrialisation is destroying the US economy. The debt-driven finance, insurance and real estate sector accounts for 21% of US GDP, manufacturing for only 13%. 44% of all US corporate profits come from the finance sector, 10% from manufacturing. Household incomes have not risen since 2000. Wages are 62% of national income, compared to an average 73% in the late 1960s.
He describes what he calls the `oil-national security complex' and its `100 years' oil war'. The USA, with 200 million of the world's 520 million automobiles, defeats conservation and energy efficiency. The USA consumes a quarter of the world's energy, but has only 5% of its reserves. Since 1998, the USA has been importing more than half the petrol it uses. A barrel of oil cost $3 in 1970, $10 in 1986, $30 in 2002, $75 in 2007. Non-OPEC oil will peak in 2010.
So the US state wants to secure oil supplies from the Middle East, but in a classic case of imperial overreach, its efforts are counter-productive. White House economic advisor Lawrence Lindsay said in September 2002, "the key issue is oil, and a regime change in Iraq would facilitate an increase in world oil so as to drive down prices." Pre-war, Iraq produced 3.5 million barrels a day, now just 1.1 million, "U.S. mismanagement in Iraq having only aggravated the oil-supply and terrorist threats", as Phillips writes. The war has caused most of the recent $45-a-barrel rise.
Phillips also studies the USA's rightwing religious fundamentalism - a toxic brew of Biblical inerrancy and born-again evangelicalism. It claims that we live in the `end-times', when the defeat of the antichrist at Armageddon heralds the second coming. It is anti-women, anti-science, anti-modernism and anti-Enlightenment. It opposes sex education, women's rights, contraception, stem-cell research and abortion.
He shows how successive US governments have indulged the soaring debt and credit industry. They encouraged reckless credit expansion, blowing up the ballooning national, international, business, financial and household debts. Low-interest rates led to the credit-card boom, to exotic mortgages, derivatives (which the speculator Warren Buffett called `financial weapons of mass destruction'), hedge-funds and debt instruments. Buffett also said, "Hyperactive equity markets subvert rational capital allocation."
Americans now owe more than they make. Finance firms are debt collectors; credit card companies offer to consolidate people's debts, but once the debtor is hooked, the company can raise interest rates to 20-30%. No wonder that in Bush's first term (2000-04), there were five million personal bankruptcies and by 2006, the USA's total debt was $40 trillion, 304% of GDP.
Too Many Plums for the Bag.......2007-07-11
The title is somewhat misleading. We expect the text to dwell on the rise of Christian fundamentalism and its effect upon American democracy. In fact the Southern Baptist Convention, for one, does constitute a major focus. However, Phillips also wants to show how radical religion, debt overhang, and politics of oil comprise three major perils for 21st century America, and collaterally, how this troika has given rise to our current debacle in the Middle-East . If we add to these subtopics, an additional concern with drawing historical parallels between America's trajectory and past empires, we get a pretty complex mix that is difficult to evaluate. In sum, I think this rather unwieldy sprawl does constitute a problem with the book. Instead of coming together in a sharp focus, the needed cohesiveness tends to scatter out over the 400 pages. Radical religion remains the center-piece, but I think a book dwelling on all three perils equally or one on radical religion exclusively would have been more effective. Nonetheless, when a pedigreed conservative like Phillips (no enemy of religion) sounds alarms about the rise of fundamentalism and the Southernization of Republican party politics, many of us not alligned with the right sit up and pay attention, no matter what the overall mix.
There are two points regarding the nation's current borrowing binge (one of Phillip's three perils) I want to briefly mention. This issue ultimately pivots on whether the national economy has genuinely entered a newly international phase such that old borrower-lender risks no longer apply. If that's the case, then the many parallels he draws with past debt traps, despite appearances, are rendered moot. I wish he had given this key aspect more critical attention than merely marshaling the adverse debt numbers, informative though these trends are. Then too, for some reason the discussion pays surprisingly little attention to defense expenditures which-- whatever their intimidation value-- are eating up much of the federal budget. Some perspective is in order here since weapons sales amounts to one of our few export bonanzas, while military R&D amounts to one of our few remaining sources of industrial innovation. How this aspect of budgetary policy affects the broader national trajectory would have been a valuable inclusion. Of course, whatever relevance value these have to the borrowing binge, such additions would add to the sprawl.
Nonetheless, behind the largely detached prose, Phillips is clearly worried about longer term trends propelling the Republican party and the nation as a whole. Moreover, there's some irony in his current electoral findings. If liberals underestimated the role of religion in American life in past decades, conservatives now risk overestimating it, creating a base too narrow to sustain the politics of fundamentalism. Coming from the strategist who was an earlier voice in the wind, such words should resonate in the age of Falwell and Robertson. There are a number of works discussing these pressing topics available. However, as a principled conservative and proven trend-detector, Phillips should not be passed up.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
Suffocating materialism is robbing people of their spiritual vitality. This book addresses the profound impact that handling money has on a person's relationship with God.
Customer Reviews:
Gentle Reminder .......2007-01-05
This is a great book. It really doesn't tell you anything you don't already know, but it reminds us of where we are and what we should be doing as stewards of His belongings. I am a Financial Planner and I give it to my clients as gifts and they love it !
Informative and Enjoyable.......2006-08-14
This is a fantastic book. It's easy and enjoyable to read. It tells you all those common sense things about money that we often lose sight of in this world's culture of materialism and 'gotta have it now' attitudes. I've read it multiple times and it just keeps driving home those truths you need to be reminded of like figuring out contentment, the value to giving and saving, etc.
Why Our Money Counts.......2006-02-25
I teach a seminar at our church on the Biblical approach to managing one's finances, and I use this book as a starting point. My students love it (one said she needs to go back and "marinade" in each chapter. Another pointed out that the while the title is "Your Money Counts", what he got from the book is "Y our Money Counts.") The bottom-line is that this book is an easy-read and makes it clear why God cares about our money matters, and it is equally clear how to apply those principles to succeed financially. I teach it once a year, and so far 90 students would vouch that what this book teaches works!
a wake-up call.......2005-07-18
Two parts warning about the corrosive effect of debt, one part encouragement that such slavery can be overcome, Howard Dayton's manual to a better way of living is an almost constitutional document in the Christian financial ministry movement. Dayton is the founder of Crown Financial Ministries, the benchmark institution in what has become an effort to counteract the personal indebtedness that increasingly pervades Western economies.
The book's subtitles cover the topics presented in seventeen brief, topical chapters. Dayton's no-nonsense style is softened by his transparency regarding his own one-time disorganized financial style. A box on the 'contrasts' between secular and biblical notions of finances and another on 'commitment' conclude most of the chapters, crystallizing the teaching that preceded them and adding a practical feel to a book designed as a guide-book towards D-Day ('Debtless Day'). Dayton is convinced that Christians can and should make that journey. The webpage of Crown Financial Ministries (...) provides additional information and tools.
Godsend!.......2005-03-28
This is a simple yet insightful book full of workable money management plans.
We read this book over the course of a few hours one week and were immediately impressed with it. Within only a few chapters, we were impressed with a desire to again be debt free. Why? When we're free of financial debt, we are more able to respond to the direction of God.
The book is not full of legalistic finger pointing,instead you'll find a careful and thoughtful approach to becoming debt free. Christians and non-christians alike will find this a great resource to becoming open, humble, obedient, and less indebted.
Book Description
In what is sure to become the standard account, Rothbard traces inflations, banking panics, and money meltdowns from the Colonial Period through the mid-20th century to show how government's systematic war on sound money is the hidden force behind nearly all major economic calamities in American history.
Never has the story of money and banking been told with such rhetorical power and theoretical vigor. You will treasure this volume.
From the introduction by Joseph Salerno:
"Rothbard employs the Misesian approach to economic history consistently and dazzlingly throughout the volume to unravel the causes and consequences of events and institutions ranging over the course of U.S. monetary history, from the colonial times through the New Deal era. One of the important benefits of Rothbard's unique approach is that it naturally leads to an account of the development of the U.S. monetary system in terms of a compelling narrative linking human motives and plans that often-times are hidden, and devious, leading to outcomes that sometimes are tragic. And one will learn much more about monetary history from reading this exciting story than from poring over reams of statistical analysis. Although its five parts were written separately, this volume presents a relative integrated narrative, with very little overlap, that sweeps across three hundreds years of U.S. monetary history."
Customer Reviews:
Superlative!.......2007-04-02
This is among my favorite works by a man who left us a large body of thinking and scholarship. Want to read a history of money & banking in the US? This is it. Here is sound exposition, presentation so clear it is refreshing. Thanks to von Mises, Rothbbard, and Llewellyn Rockwell and all those who continue the work of the Austrian school through the Ludwig von Mises Institute!
Outstanding Historical Economics Text!!!.......2006-08-17
Murray Rothbard delivers an absolute winner of a text written in the same easily readable style of "What Has Government Done To Our Money & The Case For a 100% Gold Dollar".
He has covered this lengthy timeline from the perspective of who the main players were, what their motives were, and what were the results of their actions. So what this book is NOT is a dry empirical statistical history...phew!!!
What you do get is a terrific understanding of the power struggle running through the timeline between the Houses of Morgan and Rockefeller, with of course the supporting cast of the Harrimans, Kuhn Loeb, Guggenheims and the Mellons, as it centred on their quest for banking domination, via the struggle between the sound money gold standard protaganists and the monetarist inflationary camp! Rothbard weaves in the political situation throughout so that you are able to develop a rounded picture of the political scene based on the power broking of these financial elite too. Outstanding!!
This history of the power struggles and the oscillations between sound money and inflationary monetarism will also take you through the genesis of the new Republic, the origins of the Federal Reserve, the New deal, and the Gold Exchange Standard.
It's fascinating stuff, superbly written, with excellent, detailed bottom-of-page footnoting and an extensive index.
My guess is this will be remembered as the seminal text on this subject in the decades to come!
If you haven't already read "What Has Government Done To Our Money & The Case For a 100% Gold Dollar", then you will want to as this text will also leave you wanting to further explore sound money and the Gold Standard. If you then really want to get to the heart of Rothbard, then I wholeheartedly recommend you read his awesome treatise "Man, Economy and State with Power and Market(Scholars Edition)".
You most definitely will not regret it!!!
Fascinating, Behind-the-Scenes Intrigue Revealed!.......2002-10-12
Absolutely fabulous! Only the incomparable Rothbard could tell this compelling story in its full richness and detail. Here the hidden history of money and banking in America unfolds as the internecine, behind-the-scenes warfare between elite financial interests such as the House of Morgan and the Rockefellers, the electoral struggle between the Hamiltonian Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans, and the duel-to-the-death Bank War of Nicholas Biddle and Andrew Jackson. Discover the intriguing facts of how post-Civil War ethnoreligious political conflict between postmillennial pietist Protestant Republicans versus liturgical libertarian Democrats translated into deeply-felt attitudes toward inflation, sound money, and the Gold Standard. Explore the arcane and clandestine origins of the powerful Federal Reserve, a secretive institution still clouded in mystery and myth. This magnificent volume of unpublished and previously published writings by the late Murray N. Rothbard deserves to be on the shelf of every careful scholar of political economy, and of everyone who enjoys the discovery of unseasonable and unsettling truths concerning the government elites who attempt to run our lives, debase our money, and squander our children's futures.
Amazon.com
Founded in the late 18th century by expatriate German Jews, the London-based House of Rothschild was within decades the largest banking enterprise in the world. Its principals controlled a vast portion of the industrial world's wealth--more so, Oxford historian Niall Ferguson writes, than any family has since--and as a result enjoyed tremendous political influence in the major capitals of Europe, counting as allies such important figures as Metternich and Wellington. That influence would provoke countless anti-Semitic tracts fulminating against Jewish usury and against the power of "Eastern potentates" in the empires of England and France. Although the Rothschilds were well aware of their power and not reluctant to use it, they operated fairly, Ferguson notes. For example, whereas lending rates in the textile industry, in which the Rothschilds got their start, were often 20 percent, the fledgling house charged 5 to 9 percent. Through shrewd, complex negotiations they helped promote peace and the beginnings of economic union throughout Europe.
Ferguson's sprawling history covers much ground and involves a cast of hundreds of players. At the outset he notes that his book was commissioned by the modern descendants of the House of Rothschild; even so, he approaches his task with careful balance and a critical eye, pointing out the Rothschilds' failings as well as successes. The result is a fine, solid contribution to economic history, one that, unlike so many books in the field, is eminently readable. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
The first authoritative and compulsively readable history of the rise of this legendary banking dynasty
In his rich and nuanced portrait of the remark- able, elusive Rothschild family, Oxford scholar and bestselling author Niall Ferguson uncovers the secrets behind the family's phenomenal economic success. He reveals for the first time the details of the family's vast political network, which gave it access to and influence over many of the greatest statesmen of the age. And he tells a family saga, tracing the importance of family unity and the profound role of Judaism in the lives of a dynasty that rose from the confines of the Frankfurt ghetto and later used its influence to assist oppressed Jews throughout Europe. A definitive work of impeccable scholarship with a thoroughly engaging narrative, The House of Rothschild is a biography of the rarest kind, in which mysterious and fascinating historical figures finally spring to life.
"A great biography." --Time magazine
"Absorbing. . . .Their enthralling story has been told before, but never in such authoritative detail." --The New York Times Book Review
"Niall Ferguson's rich and compelling new book . . . is a feast." --The Wall Street Journal
* Chosen by Business Week as one of the Best Business Books of 1998
* A finalist for the National Jewish Book Award
Customer Reviews:
THE PHANTOM ROTHSCHILDS.......2007-07-03
What has Ferguson not told about the Rothschilds in his seemingly exhaustive two volume set?
He all too facilely dismisses Victor Rothschild's being the fifth man in the World War II Soviet spy ring of Blunt, Burgess, et. al. He does not bring up the 1776 Masonic Illuminati order of Adam Weishaupt with alleged connections to Mayer Amschel. And he dosen't discuss the Rothschilds' connection with Freemasonry at the highest level, and their gift to Israel of the Supreme Court building, a New World Order artifact, heavily laden architecturally with Freemasonry symbolism. Likewise, glaringly absent from note are 19th, 20th, and 21st century Illuminati activities, which the family has been widely thought to be involved with. History Professor Ferguson could fill in his blanks on some vital but shady Rothschild history from Henry Makow, a researcher and writer--and a Jew.
According to an article on Ferguson in Harvard Magazine (May/June '07), he is about to take on biographical writing of Henry Kissinger, at Kissinger's request. This should generate caution. Could Kissinger's "papers" be entirely relied on? Kissinger probably saw what sheen Ferguson could put on the Rothschild's archives as raw material, ignoring or minimising important but dark concerns.
Same question on the Warburg's family papers that he is availing himself of. What will Ferguson tell us about Paul Warburg's role in establishing the egregious Federal Reserve, and Max Warburg financing the Bolshevik revolution?
Let's hope that Ferguson can either put this and other allegations to rest once and for all or illuminate them if true--but now that he's shown his colors with the Rothschilds, I doubt that he will, either way.
It seems that sympathetic academic interest in these elitist families and individuals is inevitable in part because that is where the big bucks for research and publishing would be, especially for a scholar who professes to have, as he says in the Harvard Magazine article, "become a thorough philo-Semite".
Is there a whiff of opportunism here at the expense of objectivity?
The author must be an anti-Semite.......2007-04-18
the book had some good pictures, however prof Ferguson not once, but on numerous occasions, claims to refute the story of how Nathan brilliantly deceived the London Stock Exchange players after the battle of Waterloo, earning $40 billion (2007 prices) in one day. A bit jealous I suppose.
Verdict: Ignore the anti-semitic propaganda and the book is worth a look.
Great book by Ferguson on monied surrupticious Euro family..........2006-10-16
[Also see: Fritz Springmeier's Bloodlines of the
Illuminati]. Ferguson, who teaches at a Northea-
stern University in the US, did yeoman work here
on at least defusing some of conspiracy talk about
how fools like Bernard Piper-Collins claim Roths-
childs alledgedly control ALL things.The Rothschilds
never ran the bank of England, the gentile Baring
Bros. did. They are however a very corrupt family.
Author Ferguson did excellent work here.
A little too detailed.......2006-06-23
I have to start out by saying overall I enjoyed the book but I would only rate it as an average book. It is a little too detailed and didn't keep my interest from one chapter to the next. It would have been better if it left out 150 pages or so. I found myself doing a lot of skiming over what I would say was boring filler in the book. You can learn a lot about the type of business that that Rothschilds were in but not a lot of how they went about doing it.
After reading this it seems that the Rothschilds were in the business of making large loans to governments and then packaging these loans as bonds and selling them to the public. They were as much bond and commodity traders as they were bankers, which I found interesting. There are numerous quotes from letters written back and forth between family members that will give you a sense of their personalities. The family history is very detailed so if this is the kind of thing you are interested in then you will probably enjoy the book more then I did.
Much more than a family saga.......2005-11-07
Those who already know Niall Ferguson do not need any praise for the books he writes: a few years ago I chanced to read his excellent "The Cash Nexus" and this led me to "The Pity of War" and finally to "The House of Rothschild".
Ferguson is a scholar who loves challenges: not just challenging arguments, but also challenges in the sheer volume of sources and research, and finally challenges to the reader in presenting controversial theses (I think specially of those advanced brilliantly, and contentiously, in "The Pity of War" - see my review if interested).
This last effort is mainly an attempt to unveil the Rothschild mythology, restoring an historically accurate perspective both of the family saga and of the banking and financial European history from 1798 to 1848.
The book is a masterpiece for many reasons: not just story of a family (circumscribed to the male members), not just story of a great banking institution in the past two centuries, but also comprehensive financial history of the first half of XIX century... "a rich and nuanced portrait" as the book leaflet reads - that reveals and hides, but also creates an appealing and fascinated image of those turbulent years.
So, it can appeal the history buff, and all those readers interested in financial history (and speculative bubbles) as well as those interested in biography and cultural history.
The essay definitely has also - obviously maybe - a literary dimension: because in describing the five brothers Ferguson uses those same "colors" used by contemporaries, a literary dimension that cannot but appeal and enrich the more serious economic investigation: for Nathan the "meteoric" larger than life Napoleon-like image (passion for risk, high stakes on the table and the ruthlessness of a general), for James that richly colored literary portrait (full of mid-tones) we have been used by writers like Balzac, Zola and Stendhal (the mix of secretiveness and candid frankness, detachment and savoir vivre), for the others three brothers the age-old mythologies of Midas and the wandering Jew (specially in the portrait of the German and Austrian branch: they seem consciously prisoners of the Jewish stereotype in their inability to enjoy life and relax).
Every reader interested in the story of the House of Rothschild want to know the why and how a middle class Jewish family confined in the Frankfurt ghetto was able in just one generation to become the richest family in the world.
Ferguson's study is very good in the pars destruens, that is in taking down and unveiling the old mythologies (like the Waterloo myth, or the Hesse Kassel myth), less good in the pars construens that is substituting a coherent explanation. The surviving accounts are of course too tiny to cast light, and the accounting techniques used by the family in the early days too backward to be critically useful.
So the impression is that of an unending race over speed limits, a sheer willingness to accept often uncalculated risks and to play for the highest stakes and at the same time an impressive luck (or God's favor) that stuck contemporaries (always expecting the meteoric rise of Nathan to end like the parallel story of Napoleon).
So was their preeminence produced only by chance?
Yes and no. Chance - according to Ferguson - played a striking role in the early stages - the building up, but consolidation and enlargement were due to specific attitudes of the family: solidarity between brothers, their informative network, their ability in cultivating diplomacy and - not least - to the fact that the family systematically reinvested in the business about 96percent of the net income produced (unlike - say - the Barings brothers, that in 1816 had almost the same size)
The book will be also hugely helpful to readers interested in European history, casting a different - unusual to most readers - light in the inner mechanism of the early XIX century European politics.
As for the nature of the Restoration, often liquidated by historians as a narrow and backward attempt to turn back the clock to pre-revolutionary times, Ferguson shows how different in reality was this period from the Ancien Regime and how the seeds of modernity were well present and working: the sheer preference of the banking institution for financing representative-backed monarchies, the consolidation in Jewish emancipation all over Europe, but also the frailty of arch-conservative governments (not just the case of Spain, but also of the Holy Alliance) compared to more pragmatic approaches.
A rather under-developed theme is the rise of modern anti-Semitism: Ferguson - unlike most scholars - indicates the first traces in France well before the Affaire Dreyfus and hints how the irresistible rise of the Rothschild family (with their devotion to Judaism) was very instrumental in consolidating anti-Jewish mythologies (out of a sense of envy but also perceived in France especially as a alien "evil" power).
As a reader interested also in financial themes, I was truly fascinated by those chapters dedicated to the bond and stock markets, particularly those regarding the default of Spanish and Portuguese consols.
The Rothschild were the first bankers to export the financial facilities, long enjoyed in Great Britain, to Continental Europe and were decisive in creating a retail market for bonds and stocks.
But the most interesting part is the one dealing with financial speculation, bubbles and defaults. Most remarkable is the feeling of a déjà vue: if you substitute Spain and Portugal with Argentina, you will observe striking similarities both in price, negotiations and very likely in the final outcome. Nihil sub sole novi, or at least it seems so.
This is a book I greatly enjoyed.
I cannot but recommend it to every reader interested in serious history.
That is not to say that it is perfect: I was - as many other reviewers - incensed by the lack of bibliography (shame on Penguin), but on the average it is an outstanding achievement.
Likewise, if you happen to be interested in the argument, you may be interested in other works I chanced to read about the same themes:
- Muhlstein, Anhka - "James de Rothschild", this is a book I read long time ago, but it was more a biography in the classical way and as far as I remember, I found it rather inconsequential
- Chancellor, Edward - "The Devil Takes the Hindmost" - a colorful and well-informed essay focusing specially on the XIX century. There are chapters dedicated to defaulting bonds in the XIX century as well as to the railway stocks bubble in the United Kingdom.
- Conor Cruise O'Brien - "The Siege: The Saga of Israel and Zionism". I have many works dedicated to Sionism and Judaism, but this is the most concise and clear exposition of the birth of anti-Semitism in Western Europe in late XIX century.
You are most welcome if you can suggest other readings or just share ideas and comments!
Thanks for reading.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
Destined to be the business publishing event of the year, or even the decade, this is the long awaited new book by the co–author of Built To Last. In it, Jim Collins shares his latest long–term research – and shows how even mediocre companies can become long–term world beaters.
Jim Collins has become a best–selling classic business author, with 590,000 copies sold to date, and has been translated into 17 languages.
Customer Reviews:
A very thought-provoking book for people trying to grow their business........2007-10-02
This was a very interesting book for me to read. I have to imagine that I am in a pretty narrow target market for this book, though the concepts may be broadly applied. I work for a small business and can see many opportunities to put this book's findings to work.
The book tells the various stories of companies that made a transition from a market participant to market leader and saw sustained success for at least 15 years. The author was able to identify a few common factors between these companies, and he and his research team present them as a model for us to follow.
I had but one small issue, which is probably not information that contributes to the rest of the research. They detail radical decisions made by upper management, sometimes completely changing the face of an established business. I figure there must be a largely disproportionate number of business that fail when they made the same or a similar move. I would have liked to see some detail behind how those successful companies came to make that decision. The decision itself was largely overlooked.
Like many "business" books, I feel that much of what was written here was largely common sense. They weren't necessarily ideas that I have had or would have come up with on my own, but as I read them they seemed mundane in analysis. It made the reading slow going, but there was a silver lining -- for instant gratification, each chapter ends with a few pages of main concepts extracted from the text.
There was some very insightful research in Good to Great. The common elements identified were relevant and practical. It would not be an easy model to follow, but if it were it would defeat its own purpose to isolate those corporate characteristics that set successful companies apart. If you have ever wondered what steps you should follow to take your company from Good to Great, this is a book you should read (even if it is just the chapter summaries).
"Good" is not "good enough"........2007-10-02
"Good" is not "good enough". When organizations and/or individuals settle for "good" as "good enough" they set themselves up to become obsolete. "Good to Great" looks at those organizations that decided never to settle for "good enough" and became "Great". How about you? Are you striving to become great at what you do, or have you settled for being good enough to get by? Does the organization that you work for have a plan to move from good to great? Are you a part of the change that will take your company to the next level or do you believe that your company is "good enough" right where it is?
I believe there is more value to be gained by pushing good organizations to become great than trying to turn mediocre organizations into good ones. The data presented in "Good to Great" shows just how much value can be gained by those willing to make the leap to Great. The book also shows you what principles of business those companies that made the leap had to adopt.
My favorite chapters are chapter two (Level 5 Leadership) and three (First Who...Then What). Level 5 Leadership address the benefits of having personal humility combined with a strong will to build something great. We have to many leaders at the top that have let their egos become more important than the organizations they run. "Good to Great" explains how the leaders of those companies that made the leap avoided the ego trap while having great ambitions for building something exceptional. Everyone who wishes to become a leader that makes a difference should read this chapter.
"First Who...Then What" does a good job of showing how great companies put "talent" at the top of the agenda. Any leader who wants to build a strong organization must put "talent" at the top of their agenda. Jim Collins address two critical issues companies need to address when it comes to recruiting and developing their talent. He shows us why it is important to get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus. And then goes on to explain how great companies get the people in the right seat. How many people in your organization are in the wrong seat? How many should be taken off the bus entirely? Companies are not good at hiring the right people and then are terrible at assigning them to the right job. This chapter is a must for anyone involved in the hiring of talent.
I also recommend spending some time at jimcollins.com. I have visited and revisited this site to get more information on the concepts presented in "Good to Great". Buy the book, then go to the website and start your own journey from good to great.
Larry Kevin Adams
theactionator.com
Good To Great.......2007-09-28
Our company is taking the advice of the book to heart. We have formed our "hedgehog" group and all are excited. We want to work in an environment of greatness. The book shows us the way. We have 7 of our employees who have agreed to "donate their time" at lunch several times a month to help us identify our circles. I would recommend this book to any company or organization that truly wants to have their maximum impact in the arena in which they operate!
My Business Bible.......2007-09-24
If I have a bible for business, this is it. First who then what is the only way to go!
Still applicable in 2007.......2007-09-19
I enjoyed the thought provoking aspect of this book. The different levels of leadership, the hedgehog concept are the two takeaways from this book.
How many of us fall into the trap of being everything to everyone? Most I suspect from the findings presented in the book.
Read this book to find out how you can strive to be a Level 5 leader. I found the book very insightful. Jim Collins and his team hit a homerun!
Book Description
Writing in the June 1965 issue of theEconomic Journal, Harry G. Johnson begins with a sentence seemingly calibrated to the scale of the book he set himself to review: "The long-awaited monetary history of the United States by Friedman and Schwartz is in every sense of the term a monumental scholarly achievement--monumental in its sheer bulk, monumental in the definitiveness of its treatment of innumerable issues, large and small . . . monumental, above all, in the theoretical and statistical effort and ingenuity that have been brought to bear on the solution of complex and subtle economic issues."
Friedman and Schwartz marshaled massive historical data and sharp analytics to support the claim that monetary policy--steady control of the money supply--matters profoundly in the management of the nation's economy, especially in navigating serious economic fluctuations. In their influential chapter 7, The Great Contraction--which Princeton published in 1965 as a separate paperback--they address the central economic event of the century, the Depression. According to Hugh Rockoff, writing in January 1965: "If Great Depressions could be prevented through timely actions by the monetary authority (or by a monetary rule), as Friedman and Schwartz had contended, then the case for market economies was measurably stronger."
Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2000 for work related to A Monetary History as well as to his other Princeton University Press book, A Theory of the Consumption Function (1957).
Customer Reviews:
One of the Top-10 Economics Books.......2006-03-26
MV=PQ (and other variations)
Monetary History of the United States is one of the greatest and most historic economics book written. Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize in economics for this masterwork. It revolutionized economics. The only other book that is better is The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. I highly recommend both books.
At the time Monetary History was published, monetary economics had fallen out of favor because of the Great Depression. Economists had thought that monetary forces were ineffective as stimulating the economy in a severe downturn. The phrase "pushing up on a string" became famous. That led to the belief that government intervention of fiscal policy was needed to keep the economy stable.
Friedman and Schwartz turned that upside down by proving beyond a doubt that monetary forces caused the Great Depression, caused the recovery under Franklin Roosevelt, caused the recession of 1937-38, caused the recovery after the recession, and caused everything else in American history.
Monetary History has never been effectively refuted. It stands unrivaled.
Liberals used to credit Roosevelt for pulling America out of the Great Depression, and the complete statistics do show a strong recovery from 1933 to 1938 and from 1939 onward. Friedman showed that most Roosevelt policies had nothing to do with the recovery. What Roosevelt did right was to remove America from the gold standard and save the banking industry. Monetary history shows that this stopped the monetary contraction and led to an increase in the money supply, but nobody fully understood that at the time.
Some Roosevelt policies for commonsense stability, like the SEC and FHA, and investments, like the GI Bill and infrastructive developments (long part of American economic history), were good. But many Roosevelt policies were a waste of money and had no effect at all on the economy.
Likewise, the recent claims that Roosevelt hurt business confidence and prolonged the Great Depression are unfounded. Friedman and Scwartz showed conclusively, and with several different tests from different approaches, that the recession of 1937-38 is completely explained by a contraction of the money supply by the Federal Reserve. Labor unrest and other factors that could affect busines confidence were completely irrelevant, and this book completely disproves it. Monetary forces completely explain the Great Depression and the rest of American economic history.
Don't believe the political pundits one way or the other. Monetary History is the answer.
Friedman argued that a steady monetary policy could maintain a steady economy, and he argued this when nobody believed him. Now this is widely accepted. Today the Federal Reserve Bank used monetary policy to keep the economy steady.
I highly recommend Monetary History. I also highly recommend the more updated Essays on the Great Depression by Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The Great Depression is the ultimate riddle and both Friedman and Schwartz, and Bernanke understand it.
A tremendous amount of work combined with a misspecified model.......2005-09-18
Friedman and Schwartz(1963)did a great deal of worthwhile data compilation.The problem(an identical problem occurs in the 1956 work of Philip Cagan) occurs when they attempt to fit the data to the standard quantity of exchange equation MV=PO,where M is the supply of money(Friedman always selects MI to be equal to M),V is the velocity,P is the price level,O is real GNP(GDP),and PO is nominal GNP(GDP).The correct specification of the equation of exchange is M(Vw)=PO,where w is defined on the unit interval between 0 and 1.w is Keynes's measure of the weight of the evidence or Ellsberg's (rho)measure of the confidence a decision maker has in the information set he will use to calculate the probabilities of different outcomes.Friedman is a lifelong adherent and advocate of the Ramsey-De Finetti-Savage subjective approach to probability which argues that ,while the existence of vagueness(J M Keynes's weight of the A Treatise on Probability(uncertainty of the General Theory) or Ellsberg's ambiguity)is undeniable,it can't be modeled in a decision theoretic context.Only risk,represented by a normal probability distribution and its mean+ or- 3 standard deviations,can be operationalized.Friedman's section 4 of chapter 12,titled "Expectations about Stability ",discusses exactly what Savage called vagueness,Keynes called uncertainty,liquidity preference being a function of uncertainty AND NOT RISK,AND ELLSBERG CALLED AMBIGUITY.Friedman has no variable in his model to deal with it.He admits this on the second paragraph of p.675.Friedman's analysis abstracts from the role that expectations,confidence,uncertainty,and the flexibility of money(Keynes's liquidity preference)play in the demand for money .All of the Friedman-Schwartz analysis needs to be redone using the correct specification of the equation of exchange.Friedman's existing specification only holds in the special case where w=1.0,i.e.,that there is no uncertainty,ambiguity,or vagueness. MV=PO is a correct specification of the equation of exchange only if risk,measured by the normal probability distribution's standard deviation(or the standard deviation divided by the mean),is the only decision theoretic variable.All current forms of the equation of exchange ignore ambiguity and/or uncertainty and conflate risk with uncertainty.The equation of exchange has been misspecified from Hume to Friedman and Lucas.Only Keynes correctly derived a generalized equation of exchange.Keynes's analysis is contained on p.209 and chapter 21 of the GT.Lucas has already admitted that his framework of analysis breaks down completely if Keynesian uncertainty or Ellsbergian ambiguity prevents him from using his normal probability distribution.The massive 50 plus years of statistical analysis by Benoit Mandelbrot of data from all financial markets(stock,money,commodities,futures,currencies,bond) provides overwhelming empirical support for not using the normal distribution.Keynes,of course,would agree that, if the only decision theoretic variable of consequence is risk(Mandelbrot's mild risk),velocity would be stable or predictable.The fact that velocity is not constant or predictable means that Friedman's monetarism is only a very special case of Keynes's general theory,which,in terms of Mandelbrot's definitions,deals with mild and wild risk.Friedman can only deal with mild risk.
Classic in the canon of economic theory.......2005-03-08
Milton Friedman and Anna J. Schwartz' A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 is an analysis and explanation of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Its conclusion, first published in the early 1960s, differs from the two main explanations that existed at the time.
Austrian Business Cycle Theory had argued that the Great Depression was caused by excessively loose monetary policy that fed an unsustainable economic boom during the 1920s, which eventually collapsed into depression. Friedman and Schwartz argued that instead it was excessively tight monetary policy following the boom of the 1920s that turned a run-of-the-mill recession into a depression. (For the Austrian explanation of the Great Depression, see Sir Lionel Robbins' The Great Depression or Murray Rothbard's America's Great Depression.)
Keynesianism argued that the Great Depression had been caused by insufficient consumer product demand and lack of investor confidence, and that government should compensate for this by increasing its spending and financing it with government debt. Friedman and Schwartz argued instead that the problem and solution were not so much a matter of fiscal policy as they were a matter of monetary policy. Government, particularly the monetary authorities, was the cause of the depression, not the solution. Stimulative fiscal policy as prescribed by Keynes would in the long run not lead to an increase in economic growth and employment, but only to an increase in inflation. (For the Keynesian explanation of the Great Depression, see John M. Keynes's The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money or John Kenneth Galbraith's The Great Crash, 1929.)
At the time of its publication, A Monetary History was not immediately accepted by the economics profession, which then was still dominated by Keynesian thinking. But when Keynesian theory could not explain the stagflation (recession combined with high inflation) of the 1970s, monetarism came to rule the day, and Friedman would go on to win the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Friedman and Schwartz's analysis has by now become the standard explanation for the Great Depression. In the very least, the book helped reestablish the importance of monetary over fiscal policy in the stabilization of the business cycle. Money matters, even if it is not the only thing that matters. In addition, the importance of the book was methodological, in that it emphasized the importance of the empirical testing of one's economic propositions. What makes the book so persuasive is the great lengths to which the authors go to sort out the causation behind the correlation-the causation, they found, ran from money to output and prices rather than vice versa or via a fourth variable.
A Monetary History is a classic work in the canon of economic literature. It is on occasion still reviewed in the literature (e.g. Journal of Monetary Economics, August 1994; Cato Journal, Winter 2004). It clearly is an academic work written for trained economists, making it perhaps less accessible to a general audience. But several highly readable summary versions of the book exist, such as chapter 3 of Milton and Rose Friedman's Free to Choose, and even a one-paragraph summary conclusion in Capitalism and Freedom (on p. 45 of the paperback edition), which was published around the same time as A Monetary History. Alternatively, ch. 13 ("A Summing Up", pp. 676-700) is reprinted in The Essence of Friedman.
Hard to read, only for economists or wannabe economists.......2004-12-10
I hated this book because it's hard to read. I don't like wading through sentences as long as paragraphs full of obscure words that require a dictionary nearby.
I just wanted to get a general understanding of money and the Federal Reserve from a source I trust and admire - Milton Friedman. I don't mind facts and figures but I resent writing that forces me into hard labor to decipher the meaning. I think good writing is communicating in the simplest way possible, not in trying to impress the reader with the author's vocabulary and ability to construct impenetrable, wannabe-sophisticated, long, compound sentences.
Don't get me wrong, I'm an engineer and I've got a decent vocabulary and fairly decent language skills.
I've found the books by Murray N. Rothbard to be much easier to read than this book though not as easy to read as I would like. I'm still looking for the perfect monetary history/economics book. I hope there's one out there somewhere.
Negative Review Missed the Very Point of the Book.......2003-08-21
I read the reviews and foun
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