A Cultural History of Money

“Money is a matter of functions four: a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.” But money is always a medium of communication too, whether about price or about political conviction and authority, fealty, desire, or disdain. In a work that spans 4,500 years, 54 experts chart across six volumes how money has made "the world go round" and capture money's complexities in both substance and form.

Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole and, to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six. The six volumes cover: 1 - Antiquity (2500 BCE-500 CE); 2 - Medieval Age (500-1400); 3 - Renaissance (1400-1680); 4 - Age of Enlightenment (1680-1820); 5 - Age of Empire (1820-1920); 6 - Modern Age (1920-present). Themes (and chapter titles) are: Money and its Technologies; Money and its Ideas; Money, Ritual, and Religion; Money and the Everyday; Money, Art, and Representation; Money and its Interpretation; Money and the Issues of the AgeThe total extent of the pack is approximately 1,680 pages. Each volume opens with a Series Preface, an Introduction, and Notes on Contributors and concludes with Notes, Bibliography, and an Index. The Cultural Histories SeriesA Cultural History of Money is part of The Cultural Histories Series.

Titles are available as hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a tangible reference for their shelves or as part of a fully-searchable digital library.

The digital product is available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access via www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com. Individual volumes for academics and researchers interested in specific historical periods are also available in print or digitally via www.bloomsburycollections.com.