Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money was essentially written pre-crash but even so the grand historical sweep provides great background reading to our financial turmoil. Now PBS is about to show the series which was on Channel 4 in the UK a few months ago (the Channel 4 episodes are no longer on 4OD, UK readers). Transmission dates are July 8, 15, 22 and 29 (at 9pm ET). There's a preview on the PBS website along with an initial episode and a resources site also.

I failed to blog about the book when I read it, which was an oversight. It's well written, as one would expect from this distinguished historian – there is after all a reason he's an academic and media star. (I know some people are allergic to this kind of intellectual celebrity, but I admire successful popularisers in any discipline, and also interviewed Ferguson once for Radio 4 and found him delightful, not at all pompous.)

Much of the history of money presented here is familiar but it's no bad thing to see it set in the context of the very long run perspective, and also in the context of the unfamiliar aspectsas well. What's particularly interesting from today's vantage point is the emphasis Ferguson places on intellectual and technological innovation, which I agree is fundamental. Credit derivatives could not have existed without the ICT revolution of modern times. Recent innovations have placed money firmly in the weightless world. I also like the focus here on the distinction between risk and uncertainty, and the way crashes are due to mistakenly treating the latter as the former.

And as always, Ferguson emphasises the links between financial and economic events and the political and social turns taken by history. As he writes in the conclusion: “I remain more than ever convinced that, until we fully understand the origin of financial species, we shall never understand the fundamental truth about money: that far from being a 'monster that must be put back in its place', as the German president recently complained, financial markets are like the mirror of mankind, revealing every hour of every working day the way we value ourselves and the resources of the world around us. It is not the fault of the mirror if it reflects our blemishes as clearly as our beauty.”

Anyway, I enjoyed the book, but as it did seem to be written with a 4-part TV series in mind, thought the television version was just as good. Of course it omits some detail but does capture the hypotheses. So, worth watching, US readers. Otherwise, a good non-fiction read for the summer,  for non-economists too.