• The Ascent of Money

  • A Financial History of the World
  • By: Niall Ferguson
  • Narrated by: Simon Prebble
  • Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (3,310 ratings)

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The Ascent of Money

By: Niall Ferguson
Narrated by: Simon Prebble
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Editorial reviews

The Ascent of Money is a fast-paced, superbly written, and richly informative excursion through tableaus, themes, scenes, and events that mark the financial history of the world. Included are substantial details on the fiscal meltdown in progress in May 2008, before the book went to press, adding a 21st century variation on the theme of financial collapses detailed in The Ascent of Money. Niall Ferguson has written an exciting panorama of finance that is also very much a book for our times. This is history as global financial drama, of advancing financial development, and the always recurring back stories of financial decline and debacle. It is a book orchestrated as much as written. The Ascent of Money demands a narrator with the range of talents necessary for bringing to voice the rich orchestration of Ferguson's prose. Enter, stage right, Simon Prebble.

With his rich, versatile, and expressive British tenor voice (and his 300+ unabridged narrations in a variety of genres), Prebble is Ascent's perfect narrator. From the first sentence of the Introduction "Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: call it what you like, money matters." to the last sentence of the Afterword "It is not the fault of the mirror if it reflects our blemishes as clearly as our beauty." Prebble delivers the authentic voice of this financial history. Applying here an altered nuance of phrasing, there the shortest of a shift of timing and slant of intonation, and everywhere present the voice's active tonal center, Prebble drives Ferguson's historical narrative forward. In a print book the reading eye catches, and the mind registers - at places only subliminally - meanings that are too subtle to be directly communicated. By his command and application of stored registries of articulation, expression, and ranges of emotion, Prebble clearly shows that he belongs with the best of narrators who can tap into and reflect and suggest the visual acuity that registers in the mind when reading and narrating. David Chasey

Publisher's summary

Niall Ferguson follows the money to tell the human story behind the evolution of finance, from its origins in ancient Mesopotamia to the latest upheavals on what he calls Planet Finance.

Bread, cash, dosh, dough, loot, lucre, moolah, readies, the wherewithal: Call it what you like, it matters. To Christians, love of it is the root of all evil. To generals, it's the sinews of war. To revolutionaries, it's the chains of labor. But in The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson shows that finance is in fact the foundation of human progress. What's more, he reveals financial history as the essential back story behind all history.

Through Ferguson's expert lens familiar historical landmarks appear in a new and sharper financial focus. Suddenly, the civilization of the Renaissance looks very different: a boom in the market for art and architecture made possible when Italian bankers adopted Arabic mathematics. The rise of the Dutch republic is reinterpreted as the triumph of the world's first modern bond market over insolvent Habsburg absolutism. And the origins of the French Revolution are traced back to a stock market bubble caused by a convicted Scot murderer.

©2008 Niall Ferguson (P)2008 Tantor
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about The Ascent of Money

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    5 out of 5 stars

how history should be written

took me a year to finish, reading (listening) off and on. the history is well laid out, and the book has provided many more opportunities for me to research other topics. i will read this again

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Tidbits of history!

I gave it four star because of the research, the content itself is not that interesting, I liked the few stories of scandals but the rest is just stuff most people dealing in financial sector already know.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

decent

he gives the top bad actors in finance a pass but still a decent history book.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent

I listened why I run and it is a wonderful masterpiece and explanation of the beginning of money.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great overview of Finance and Money

Loved it.. High level overview of the history of money and finance, but also detailed enough to get into specific individuals, processes, and financial instruments.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

very interesting, timely

As a non-financial background type person, i thought this was very enlightening, since i never think about concepts like these. While a little boring at times, overall, it opened my mind to a new way of conceptualizing what finance is all about. Also, the lessons of the book are really valuable: the regularity with which events like the current financial situation have recurred is a lesson to anyone who wants to invest or consider saving his/her own personal funds.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Very nice

A very interesting and engrossing history of finance. Narration is also very good. I would recommend it for individuals with non-finance background wanting to learn a little about the world of finance and how it got to be the way it is.

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

Dense - but informative

I was a liberal art major in College. Money, to me, just sort of "was." Mr. Ferguson takes the listener through a delightful history of money and economy and allows one to see how we got where we are.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Will listen to it at least one more time

There is so much intersting information that I feel I need to listen to the book at least one more time. Very nice and logical presentation of money evolution.

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1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Great look into the history of financial intrament

Enlightening and easy to listen to. Learned a lot, narrater added just the right panache . Well worth the time.

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