The Oxford Book of Money

When Paul Dombey asks `what's money?' in Charles Dickens's novel, his father is hard put to find an answer. The Oxford Book of Money sets out to explore the question with the help of writers, poets, artists, philosophers, economists, financiers and politicians, and to determine not only what it is, but more importantly, what it can do.

True to the decimal system, the ten sections that make up this anthology look at the rich and the poor and the countless ways in which money can be made and lost. From ancient Greece to modern America trade, speculation, inheritance, debt and ruin have been the themes of literature and the sources of philosophical and psychological conjecture on money, happiness, and evil. Drawing on a wealth of material, including writing by Dante, Milton, Nietzche, Beckett, Wolfe, and Eco, Kevin Jackson has compiled a gem of an anthology on the richest topic of them all.