Greenback, Jason Goodwin, Penguin Books, Limited, 2003, , . DOWNLOAD http://kgarch.org/1cksQ4A The Greenback Paper Money and American Culture, Heinz Tschachler, Apr 5, 2010, Antiques & Collectibles, 248 pages. "This text explores the social, cultural and historical contexts of paper money. Predicated on the assumption that paper bills speak to us through the use of symbols--letters .... A guide book of modern United States currency , Neil Shafer, 1973, , 160 pages. Alexander Hamilton Federalist and Founding Father, Lisa DeCarolis, Jan 1, 2003, Juvenile Nonfiction, 112 pages. Surveys the life of Alexander Hamilton, a founding father, later becoming the first Secretary of the Treasury.. American Heritage , , 1960, Art, . The History of Money , Jack Weatherford, Sep 23, 2009, Business & Economics, 304 pages. In his most widely appealing book yet, one of today's leading authors of popular anthropology looks at the intriguing history and peculiar nature of money, tracing our .... Alexander Hamilton in the American tradition , Louis Morton Hacker, 1957, , 273 pages. History at your fingertips and spirit of the nation , Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1996, Antiques & Collectibles, 8 pages. The Official 2003 Blackbook Price Guide to United States Paper Money, 35th Edition , Marc Hudgeons, Thomas E. Hudgeons, Jul 2, 2002, Antiques & Collectibles, 336 pages. The 36th edition of this essential guide is still the most comprehensive source for collecting and pricing U.S. paper currency. It covers every national note issued from the .... Alexander Hamilton , Stuart Gerry Brown, 1967, , 183 pages. The official guide of United States paper money , Theodore Kemm, 1974, Antiques & Collectibles, 192 pages. The new deal in money , Charles Edward Coughlin, 1933, Business & Economics, 128 pages. The Janissary Tree , Jason Goodwin, , , . The Great Seal of the United States , , , , . The Everything Founding Fathers Book All you need to know about the men who shaped America, Meg Greene, Paula Stathakis, Jun 18, 2011, History, 304 pages. George Washington. John Adams. Benjamin Franklin. These great leaders--and many others--made innumerable contributions that laid the groundwork for our nation. But who were .... The Cash Nexus Money and Politics in Modern History, 1700-2000, Niall Ferguson, Mar 7, 2013, History, 576 pages. The Cash Nexus is the controversial history of money's central place in the world, from Niall Ferguson, bestselling author of Empire and Civilization Generations of historians .... From the author of Lords of the Horizons, the fascinating story of a new kind of money for a new world. Money has always been at the heart of the American experience. Paper money itself, invented in Boston in 1698, was a classic of American ingenuity—and American disregard for authority and tradition. With the wry and admiring eye of a modern De Tocqueville, Jason Goodwin has written a biography of the dollar giving us the story of its astonishing career through the wilds of American history. Greenback looks at the dollar over the years as a form of art, a kind of advertising, a reflection of American attitudes, and a builder of empires. Goodwin shows us how the dollar rolled out the frontier, peopled the Plains; how it erected the great cities; how it expressed the urges of democracy and opportunity. And above all, he introduces us to the people who championed—or ambushed—the dollar over the years: presidents, artists, pioneers and frontiersmen, bankers shady and upright, safe-blowers, and crooks and dreamers of every stripe. It’s a vast and colorful cast of characters, all agreed on one thing: getting the money right was the key to unlocking liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Greenback delves into folklore and the development of printing, investigates wildcats and counterfeiters, explains why a buck is a buck and how Dixie got its name. Like Goodwin’s Lords of the Horizons, another story of empire, Greenback brings an array of quirky detail and surprising—often hilarious—anecdote to tell the story of America through its best-beloved product. After a strong start, this history of American money loses its thread and ends up as an entertaining collection of trivia, personality profiles and vignettes rather than the compelling narrative promised in its opening. Still, Goodwin's flair for a colorful tale makes for rich reading, covering such odds and ends as a brothel in the Treasury Department, a prayer vigil over banking deposits, exploding printing presses and even a counterfeit scheme run from behind prison bars. Goodwin (Lords of the Horizons) makes some excellent points about the role of paper money in early U.S. history-it was the earliest symbol of the new country; it helped push colonists West; it even helped familiarize Americans with their native artists-but the significance of the stories he's chosen to include isn't always clear. After presenting a single national currency as one of the holy grails of early American banking, for instance, he glosses over the moment it finally arrives, a true turning point in American financial history. Goodwin's position as a foreign observer (he is an English journalist) occasionally trips him up: no one in America, for example, says "that will be four dollars thirty six." The cast of characters is as colorful as they come, and in the end the book makes good reading for those interested in odd and exciting tales from American financial history. But it's not the fascinating narrative take on the history of money in America that Goodwin sets out to deliver, and which the subject deserves. 30 b&w illus. Goodwin tells the story of the world's dominant currency, the dollar, and its astonishing role in American history. We learn about the endless list of characters who shaped this country, both famous and obscure, and how they profoundly influenced its growth because they understood that money was the key to unlocking liberty and the pursuit of happiness or wealth. Paper money, invented in Boston in 1698, was known as "bills of credit," which people could use now and pay for in years ahead. Unlike Europeans, who were attached to money for its own sake, Americans used it as a medium for growth with an entrepreneurial spirit that has flowered in this country during the more than 300 years since the dollar was invented. Goodwin reports, "America's theology was a secular one. It revolved around money and liberty, promise and return, profit and loss. It revolved, in fact, around the miracle of money." Mary Whaley At a simple level why should we give something valuable - say a week's work - in exchange for a piece of paper? Of course, today's money is guaranteed by the U.S. government, a reliable organization. This wasn't the case for most of U.S. history. In, say 1840, you might receive an impressive certificate for ten dollars - payable in specie ("real money," i.e. coin) at Fred's bank in Lexington, Kentucky. If you lived in Lexington and knew Fred was reliable this was acceptable. Living fifty miles away in Louisville, you might not feel so comfortable. You might insist on a few extra of Fred's dollars to compensate for the risk. Far away in New York, who knew about Fred? His dollars might be worthless or accepted at a big discount. What a mess! In fact, state regulation existed, but it was not rigorous. Readers will chuckle as Goodwin explains how bankers in a given city would assemble a chest of hard money. On the arrival of a state inspector checking that each bank had enough specie to cover its notes, the chest would be rushed from bank to bank just ahead of the inspector. The Civil War finally forced the U.S. to issue paper money, but this was regarded as an emergency measure, and for decades afterward "greenbacks" were looked upon with deep suspicion. Switching gears, the author discusses counterfeiting. Until the nineteenth century, paper was printed with copper plates. Copper is soft, and after five thousand impressions, the plate wore out. It had to be re-engraved. This never produced the identical image, so even good bank notes showed variations which made counterfeiting a snap. The author introduces Jacob Perkins, an American genius unknown to me and most of you. Just after 1800 he invented steel engraving. This made duplicating a bill much harder, but the book collects a dozen fascinating counterfeiting capers with an explanation of the technology behind them. Galbraith's Money is fun to read and well organized. Goodwin's Greenback is even more fun. Well organized it isn't, but in chapter after chapter he tells wonderful stories about Americans and their attitude to paper money (Jefferson and Jackson hated it; Franklin and Hamilton loved it). We forget that gold and silver coin were scarce in the U.S. until late in the nineteenth century, so even people with a moral objection were forced to use paper money.<... Read more › His interpretation of American history is terrible. Just a few examples: Early in the book he cited Hawthorne, Thoreau and Twain (who lost a fortune trying to be an industrialist) to reach the conclusion that Americans did not collect and hoard money in the nineteenth century. Apparently he did not read the rest of his book which went on ad nauseum about Americans in the nineteenth century chasing and counterfeiting the dollar. In another instance he concludes that all civil rights were suspended during the civil war (not that this had anything to do with $) - completely ignoring the fact that the Supreme Court overturned Lincoln's attempt to suspend habeas corpus. Lastly (I could go on and on), he finished the book by noting that on our dollar bills are the icons that were present at the birth of our nation.