If, as David McWilliams laments, economists take the fun out of money, then he is the exception that proves the rule: a man who couldn't write a dull sentence even if he tried, and who brilliantly addresses his subject in this brilliantly informative and entertaining book. Tom Holland describes it as "simultaneously entertaining and enlightening." Money. The object of our desire. The engine of our genius. The greatest invention of humanity. Whether we like it or not, our world revolves around money, but we rarely stop to think about it. What is money, where does it come from, and can it run out? What is this substance that drives trade, revolutions, and discoveries; inspires art, philosophy, and science?

In this insightful, sometimes irreverent, and often surprising journey, economist David McWilliams describes the relationship between people and money – from a counting stick in ancient Africa to coins in republican Greece, from mathematics in the medieval Arab world to the French Revolution, and from the emergence of the US dollar to today's cryptocurrencies and beyond. Along the way, we meet a variety of characters who have innovated with money, disrupted society, and changed the way we live, in a continuous monetary evolution that has driven human progress for 5,000 years. McWilliams unravels the secrets and power of money, explains why it matters, and how it shapes our world. The Irish Times notes that "McWilliams has a great talent for bringing a complex economic history to life. He is also witty. In economics, that is a rare and compelling combination.".