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NEW BOOK: THE MONEY PLOTIt won't be published until this fall, but here's a publicity release for a new book on the nature of money. While not truly numismatic, it sounds like something our history-curious E-Sylum readers would enjoy. -Editor
The Money Plot reminds us that whether its form is polished shells, bills or Bitcoin, the truth at the core of every currency, even Federally mandated trillions, is that it's all a fiction. Currency is simply a fairy tale, a metaphor that humans have believed in and worshipped more than anything else on Earth. Kaufman doesn't mince words in pointing out the money-fiction absurdity on which we've built and destroyed societies, invaded and been conquered. In our contemporary world, where most money exists in a complex yet poorly understood web of computer screen abstraction – but one that's capable of causing a global meltdown (or two) – this metaphor is wearing thin. In The Money Plot, Kaufman never shies away from the politically incorrect and the absurd. He examines the concept of the trophy wife, further examining the unfortunate history of women being used as bartering tools. He sees parallels between the history of Jesus and his followers and that of currency, concluding that people believe in both using the same structural elements of belief. Kaufman points out that during the Black Death, the biggest lender of the time was the Catholic Church, who intertwined money with God, encouraging worshippers to donate to the clergy to become closer to God. In The Money Plot you'll find:
Referencing everything from Bachelier's The Theory of Speculation and Sir Isaac Newton to Kim Kardashian's Instagram account and the Planet of the Apes movies, Kaufman brilliantly traces how humans' uncanny ability to turn objects into mental constructs – creating the fiction of money – has shaped every part of history, invaded every narrative, and influenced anyone who has ever been in charge. With the same ease that Salt: A World History and Freakonomics condensed thousands of years of history into a highly informative yet entertaining format, The Money Plot explains how money was created, used, and is constantly being transformed. "In The Money Plot, Frederick Kaufman offers a startling thesis—that money is a metaphor, a fiction—and makes it plausible by brilliantly interweaving economics, literary theory, anthropology, and political history. Distilling vast erudition into wonderfully readable prose, Kaufman gives us an important book that brims with fresh insights into the ways that money, from ancient times to today, has been a floating symbol with no stable meaning." —David S. Reynolds, winner of the Bancroft Prize for American History and author of Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frederick Kaufman, an English professor by training and profession, has for the past decade focused his attention on the fiction that is money. His unorthodox insights into the ways of Wall Street have resulted in numerous magazine articles for publications ranging from Scientific American to Wired to Foreign Policy to Harper's, as well as television appearances on NBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business Network, and Democracy Now!, and invitations to lecture in both the United States and Europe, including an address to the General Assembly of the United Nations. This is his fourth book. The Money Plot: A History of Currency's Power to Enchant, Control, and Manipulate
By Frederick Kaufman
For more information, or to order, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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