In coming to terms with the still smoldering financial crisis, little attention has been paid to the flaws within our monetary system and how these flaws lie at the root of the crisis. This book provides an introduction and critical assessment of the current monetary system. It begins with an up...

1. Introduction -- 2. European money and culture before 1914 -- 3. The 1920s: Lessons from Weimar -- 4. The Jazz Age: America in the 1920s -- 5. The money-haters: experiments in socialism -- 6. Europe between the world wars: a ferment of ideas -- 7. How Europe’s culture kept money under...