https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024w82

Already a number 1 Bestseller in Ireland the book has also sold to 20 territories including the UK, US, Canada and Germany and has been nominated for A Waterstones Best Book of 2024.

In this illuminating, sometimes irreverent, and often surprising journey, economist David McWilliams charts the relationship between humans and money – from a tally stick in ancient Africa to coins in Republican Greece, to mathematics in the medieval Arab world, from innovation in Gutenberg's Germany to the French Revolution and from the emergence of the US dollar, right up to today’s cryptocurrency and beyond. Along the way, we meet a host of characters who have innovated with money, disrupting society and changing the way we live, in an ongoing monetary evolution that has, for the last 5,000 years, animated human progress.

McWilliams unlocks the mysteries and power of money, explaining what it is, how it works, why it matters -  and how it shapes our  world.

Praise for Money: A Story of Humanity

“It is an impressive journey that fizzes with facts’..‘Both finance aficionados and mere novices will read, savour and return to these books, giving fresh meaning to the concept of ‘book-keeping”

The Economist

“..firecracker of a book..enthralling ..it’s an argumentative and highly enjoyable read.’

Mail on Sunday

“Well researched and crammed full of anecdotes that help bring a dry subject to life. Much to enjoy – for the lay reader as well as the economist”

The Guardian

“Exceptional.. a hugely ambitious, insightful and readable account of our relationship with money”

Felix Martin ― Financial Times

“Money is a fabulous read but its real importance lies in the questions it raises about the future shape of our societies”

Ian Hughes, The Irish Times

“a fascinating, worthwhile read”

The Irish Independent

“A fun history of money told through the stories of the chancers, cheats, scoundrels and geniuses through the ages who made it happen . . . We take money for granted. Not the amounts of it, but just the fact that it works. This book is a great way to figure out why, and how it shapes the world around us’

Katie Martin, columnist at the Financial Times

'Pacey chapters make for a series of entertaining – and at times irreverent – tales which relay a story of money that we all should know!'

– Linda Yueh, author of The Great Crashes: Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent Them

“A breathtaking, expansive and imaginative ride through the history and future of Money from an author who truly understands it. If, like me, you’ve never quite figured out where money comes from or even what it is, this is the book for you”

Professor Brian Cox

“A Cracking Book That Is As Enjoyable As It Is Readable”

Peter Frankopan

“Equally entertaining and insightful”

Yanis Varoufakis

“David McWilliams is the best explainer of economics I know. Here he explains the world through money, and it's fantastically entertaining. He's the kind of writer who makes you feel clever, because he helps you grasp things you never understood before”

Simon Kuper, Financial Times

“A timely, fascinating account of how money has powered life on our planet from Ireland’s superstar economist. Money is so often shrouded in secrecy and manipulated by forces we barely understand, so it’s refreshing to read a book that traces our relationship with it with such healthy irreverence!”

Mariella Frostrup

“If, as David McWilliams complains, economists take the fun out of money, then he is the exception that proves the rule: a man who could not write a boring sentence if he tried, and who, in this brilliantly informative and entertaining book, has done his subject splendid justice”

Tom Holland, co-author of The Rest is History: History’s Most Curious Questions Answered

“Compelling, funny and original”

Katja Hoyer

“A tour de force of economic history'”

Gillian Tett