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Blood and Money

War, Slavery, Finance, and Empire

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Blood and Money

By: David McNally
Narrated by: Tim Getman
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About this listen

Blood and Money tells the story of money as a history of violence and human bondage.

In most accounts of the origins of money, we are offered pleasant tales in which it arises to the mutual benefit of all parties as a result of barter. In this groundbreaking study David McNally reveals the true story of money's origins and development as one of violence and human bondage. Money's emergence and its transformation are shown to be intimately connected to the buying and selling of slaves and the waging of war.

Blood and Money demonstrates the ways that money has "internalized" its violent origins, making clear that it has become a concentrated force of social power and domination. Where Adam Smith observed that monetary wealth represents "command over labor", this paradigm shifting book amends his view to define money as comprising the command over persons and their bodies.

©2020 David McNally (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing Economic History Economics Politics & Government Social Classes & Economic Disparity Sociology Theory World Money War Capitalism Africa

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So I found the actual meat of the text to be very interesting and insightful but at times, particularly in introductions and conclusions, I found the language to be a little emotive to the point of being preachy. This is probably in large part due to the difference between my British world view and that of the, presumably American author. This is overall a knit pick as it is confined to very small parts of the book and is massively outweighed by the excellent quality of research and analysis displayed in majority of the book.

Very Insightful but a little preachy in places

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Well documented analysis regarding shadow sides of recorded human history.
Narration was impeccable an a comfortable listen.

Insightful analysis

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Like the book, it’s opposite of my worldview but that’s why we read. How many times is it possible to write «not withstanding» in a single book? This holds the record

Not withstanding

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I wanted a historical view of money and its effects positive and negative. This felt more of a «why captialisme is wrong» type of book.

Felt like communist propaganda..

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