## Foundation for Human Flourishing

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Foundation for Human Flourishing](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/12/book-review-foundation-for-human-flourishing-jeff-kearns)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Jeff Kearns
- Published: December 3, 2024

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### Overview
- Book reviewed: Money: A Story of Humanity by David McWilliams.
- Publication details (as given): Simon & Schuster, London, 2024, 416 pp., £25.
- Review author: JEFF KEARNS (on the staff of Finance & Development).
- Framing claim: “Our entire world revolves around this strange, invented notion,”—money presented as a foundational technology that underpinned and animated human flourishing.
- Temporal sweep emphasized: 5,000 years of history from early coins to crypto.

### Thesis and scope
- Central question explored: Whether money enabled breakthroughs like writing, math, law, democracy, and philosophy, or whether those breakthroughs guided money’s evolution (“chicken-or-egg” formulation).
- Core proposition: Proficiency with the “ingenious technology” of money accompanied major human innovations; money is presented as one foundational technology often overlooked.
- Geographic focus: Strong emphasis on Europe, with other cradles of money (for example, China) touched only in passing; author states a need for selective focus linking monetary innovation to European economic progress.

### Narrative, themes, and notable arguments
- Narrative method: Lively, conversational storytelling described as a “romp with an economist.”
- Human-centered account: “People predominate.” Historical figures featured include Nero, Jesus, Johannes Gutenberg, Charles Talleyrand, Alexander Hamilton, and Charles Darwin (linked through Thomas Malthus).
- Moral and political dimensions: Money used to divide and to wage warfare; European financial innovations linked to unleashing colonialism.
- Cultural connections: Digressions connect money to arts and urban life (example: James Joyce opening Dublin’s first cinema in 1909 used to illuminate wider economic and historical linkages including the Suez Canal, Karl Marx, and the role of open cities like Trieste).

### Author background and approach
- David McWilliams’s background (as presented): former monetary economist at the Central Bank of Ireland and forecaster for commercial banks; later an author, journalist, documentarian, and festival host (Kilkenomics).
- Style and intent: Chatty, engaging, aimed at making money accessible and exciting; criticizes economists for making money dull and for not explaining why money matters beyond technical mechanics.

### Comparisons, influences, and sources
- Works cited by the reviewer as antecedents or comparable titles: Money by Eric Lonergan; Money: The Unauthorised Biography by Felix Martin; The Price of Time: The Real Story of Interest by Edward Chancellor.
- Author’s prior dissemination: Some material derives from McWilliams’s podcast and public storytelling.

### Strengths and limitations (as noted)
- Strengths:
  - Memorable, entertaining recounting of monetary history.
  - Effective linking of money to human motives—“fuels our deepest urges, good and evil.”
  - Accessible framing intended to resonate broadly.
- Limitations:
  - Eurocentric emphasis; other monetary histories receive only brief treatment.
  - Selective focus may leave out equally valid non-European narratives.

### Key quotations and lines from the review
- “The entire world revolves around the invented notion of money.”
- Money described as “one foundational technology, often overlooked, that underpinned and animated human flourishing.”
- McWilliams’s self-characterization: a writer who did a “romp with an economist,” and a critique that his “own tribe” has taken the fun out of money.

*Source: F&D Magazine — Foundation for Human Flourishing, Jeff Kearns, December 2024.*

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## Content in this bundle

- **Foundation for Human Flourishing**
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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2024/12/book-review-foundation-for-human-flourishing-jeff-kearns_