A Cultural History of Money in the Modern Age (The Cultural Histories Series)

"Bracketed by global financial crises and economic downturns, the modern age has been defined by debates about, and transformations of, money. The period witnessed the consolidation of national currencies and monetary policies as well as the diversification of payment technologies and the proliferation of financial instruments. Throughout, even as it appeared abstracted by finance and depoliticized by expert ideologies, money was revealed again and again to be a powerful medium of cultural imagination and practical inventiveness as well as the site of public and political struggles. Modern money - both as a form of liquidity and as a claim on wealth - remains deeply unsettled, caught between private and public interests and subject to epic struggles over the infrastructures of value creation and circulation and their distributional consequences. Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources, A Cultural History of Money in the Modern Age presents essays that examine key cultural case studies of the period on the themes of technologies, ideas, ritual and religion, the everyday, art and representation, interpretation, and the issues of the age."-- Provided by publisher A Cultural History of Money presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. The set of six volumes charts how money has made the world go around over four millennia and how its multiple materialities and meanings have shaped, and been shaped by, the broader social and cultural world around it. 1. A Cultural History of Money in Antiquity (2500 BCE-500 CE) 2. A Cultural History of Money in the Medieval Age (500-1400) 3. A Cultural History of Money in the Renaissance (1400-1680) 4. A Cultural History of Money in the Age of Enlightenment (1680-1820) 5. A Cultural History of Money in the Age of Empire (1820-1920) 6. A Cultural History of Money in the Modern Age (1920-present) Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters: 1. Money and its Technologies 2. Money and its Ideas 3. Money and Religion 4. Money and the Everyday 5. Money and Art (or Visual Representations) 6. Money and its Interpretation (or Verbal Representations) 7. Money and the Issues of the Age This structure offers readers a broad overview of a period within each volume or the opportunity to follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter across volumes. The full six-volume set, which is generously illustrated, combines to present the most authoritative and comprehensive survey available on money in history Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Illustration 8 Notes on Contributors 13 Series Preface 16 Introduction: Money—Cultural, Historical, Modern 20 1 Money and its Technologies: Making Money Move in the Modern Era 46 2 Money and its Ideas: Between Technocracy and Democracy 72 3 Money, Ritual, and Religion: The Horror of It (the Prosperity Gospel and the Myth of Deterritorialization) 102 4 Money and the Everyday: Instability and Inventiveness in the Modern Age 124 5 Money, Art, and Representation: Six Artists, Two Crises (1973, 2008) 154 6 Money and its Interpretation: The Future of Money in Speculative Fiction 184 7 Money and the Issues of the Age: The Nature of Money and Post-Crisis Proposals for Reform 210 Notes 236 Bibliography 244 Index 274