Gold

The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal

By: Matthew Hart

Narrated by: David Drummond

Length: 8 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the price of gold has skyrocketed - in three years, it has more than doubled from $800 an ounce to $1,900. This massive spike kicked off an unprecedented global gold-mining and exploration boom, much bigger than the Gold Rush of the 1800s.

InGold, acclaimed author Matthew Hart takes you on an unforgettable journey around the world and through history to tell the incredible story of how gold became the world's most precious commodity.

Beginning with a dispatch from the crime-ridden, dangerous inferno of the world's deepest mine, Hart pulls back to survey gold's tempestuous past. From the earliest civilizations - 6,000 years ago, when gold was an icon of sacred and kingly power - Hart tracks its evolution, through conquest, murder, and international mayhem, into the speculative casino-chip that the metal has become.

On this spellbinding journey, you will witness the Spanish plunder of the New World, a century of pillage that crushed the glittering Inca empire of the Andes and transferred its staggering wealth to Europe. Hart describes each boom and bust in gold's long story, each panic and shock, with a masterful storytelling hand, leading up to the present day - to the London vaults that hold the multi-ton hoards of such shadowy investors as the American gold fund called "the Spider," to the amazing, gold-rich bamboo forests of eastern Senegal, and to the piratical carnival of theft that enlivens the world's greatest gold-producing engine: China.

With writing described by Publishers Weekly as "polished and fiery," Hart weaves together history and cutthroat economics to reveal the human dramas that have driven our lust for a precious yellow metal.

©2013 The Rough Corporation Ltd. (P)2013 Tantor

in the eyes of the beholder

Terrific survey of the modern machinations in the world of gold. Narration is first rate.

really good

I had some questions about gold and it answered all of them. it was very informative and I enjoyed the stories especially about bad brad cause my name is Brad haha.

very educational. wanted more when the end..came.

enjoyed the history and actual facts very much.
learned information that I actually needed and feel fortunate to now know.

Really enjoyed several chapters but ...

Really enjoyed several chapters and even the slower chapters were interesting. But it is a slightly disjointed collection of stories with no unifying theme that I could discern other than they were about gold. I don't know much about gold, so this was an interesting but far from systematic approach to learning about the metal. If you're in the same boat, I recommend this book as an easy eight hour way to "get your feet wet" in order to motivate a more thorough examination of the metal. Probably a good book for people who don't want any more gold knowledge than the 8 hours of interesting stories that are in this book.

The author is Keynesian, but of course these days who isn't, and this may lead to the lackadaisical approach. If you don't see any value in the metal, its hard to take seriously a systematic comprehensive effort to learn about it. This Keynesian philosophy appears from time to time, but mostly in the first couple of chapters. It is slightly annoying because of the contradiction and perhaps the author should have addressed why a Keynesian who sees little reason for gold should stop to write a book about it. Anyway, recommend that you push past the Keynesian stuff. It doesn't last long and shouldn't detract from your enjoyment of what is a flawed but highly interesting book. If you're a gold bug and know alot about the metal, you should really peruse the TOC to see if you should read this book. Gold experts may not see much value in the book.

My Head Aches Thinking About This Book

Would you try another book from Matthew Hart and/or David Drummond?

No

Would you ever listen to anything by Matthew Hart again?

No

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of David Drummond?

Nothing could make this better.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Yes, my book club made the decision after a few of us read it to not put the rest of the readers through the agony. We ditched it for Willa Cather. Pure heaven.