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Bracketed by global financial crises and economic downturns, the modern age has been defined by debates about, and transformations of, money. The period witnessed the consolidation of national currencies and monetary policies as well as the diversification of payment technologies and the proliferation of financial instruments. Throughout, even as it appeared abstracted by finance and depoliticized by expert ideologies, money was revealed again and again to be a powerful medium of cultural imagination and practical inventiveness as well as the site of public and political struggles. Modern money - both as a form of liquidity and as a claim on wealth - remains deeply unsettled, caught between private and public interests and subject to epic struggles over the infrastructures of value creation and circulation and their distributional consequences.
Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources,
A Cultural History of Money in the Modern Age presents essays that examine key cultural case studies of the period on the themes of technologies, ideas, ritual and religion, the everyday, art and representation, interpretation, and the issues of the age.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Series Preface, Bill Maurer, University of California Irvine, USA
Introduction: Money - Cultural, Historical, Modern, Taylor C. Nelms, Filene Research Institute, USA and David Pedersen, University of California, San Diego, USA
1. Money and its Technologies: Making Money Move in the Modern Era, Lana Swartz, University of Virginia, USA and David L. Stearns, University of Washington, USA
2. Money and its Ideas: Between Technocracy and Democracy, Michael Beggs, University of Sydney, Australia
3. Money, Ritual, and Religion: The Horror of It (the Prosperity Gospel and the Myth of Deterritorialization), Jon Bialecki, University of Edinburgh, UK
4. Money and the Everyday: Instability and Inventiveness in the Modern Age, Taylor C. Nelms, Filene Research Institute, USA and Jane I. Guyer, Johns Hopkins University, USA
5. Money, Art, and Representation: Six Artists, Two Crises (1973, 2008), Max Haiven, Lakehead University, Canada
6. Money and its Interpretation: The Future of Money in Speculative Fiction, Sherryl Vint, University of California, Riverside, USA
7. Money and the Issues of the Age: The Nature of Money and Post-Crisis Proposals for Reform, Yeva Nersisyan, Franklin and Marshall College, USA and L. Randall Wray, Bard College, USA
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Taylor C. Nelms is the Managing Director of Research at the Filene Research Institute, USA.David Pedersen is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California San Diego, USA.David Pedersen is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California San Diego, USA.Taylor C. Nelms is the Managing Director of Research at the Filene Research Institute, USA.Bill Maurer is Dean of the School of Social Sciences; Professor of Anthropology, Law and Criminology, Law and Society; and the Director of the Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion at the University of California, Irvine, USA. He is the author of Pious Property: Islamic Mortgages in the United States and Mutual Life, Limited: Islamic Banking, Alternative Currencies, Lateral Reason.
Summary
Bracketed by global financial crises and economic downturns, the modern age has been defined by debates about, and transformations of, money. The period witnessed the consolidation of national currencies and monetary policies as well as the diversification of payment technologies and the proliferation of financial instruments. Throughout, even as it appeared abstracted by finance and depoliticized by expert ideologies, money was revealed again and again to be a powerful medium of cultural imagination and practical inventiveness as well as the site of public and political struggles. Modern money - both as a form of liquidity and as a claim on wealth - remains deeply unsettled, caught between private and public interests and subject to epic struggles over the infrastructures of value creation and circulation and their distributional consequences.
Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources, A Cultural History of Money in the Modern Age presents essays that examine key cultural case studies of the period on the themes of technologies, ideas, ritual and religion, the everyday, art and representation, interpretation, and the issues of the age.
Foreword
A thematic overview of the role and impact of money on society and culture in the Modern era.
