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Lunch » Tags » Books » Reviews » A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States

A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States

5 Ratings: 3.4

A book by Stephen Mihm

Mihm vividly and entertainingly describes the muddled and often fraudulent economy of pre-greenback America: those freewheeling, pre–Civil War days when the federal government not only did not print paper money but likewise did not bother to regulate … see full wiki

Tags: Books, History, American History, Banking, Economic History, Federal Reserve, see all

Author: Stephen Mihm

Publisher: Harvard University Press

5 reviews about A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists,...

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review by fatherz. January 18, 2008

A truly fascinating book . . .

. . . on a subject most people don't even consider! I'm a big history buff. I'm even reasonably proficient on some of the monetary battles which have taken place throughout American history. But the material presented in this book was truly new to me. Although a history book, the author is a good storyteller while relating the accounts of various counterfeiters operating at different points in American history. One also learns a great deal about the … more

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review by LynnHoffman. December 27, 2007

A bit inflated

Like the early American currency that the author describes, this book is a bit inflated. We are told that in many places, counterfeit and other dubious currency was the only medium that enabled trade and that people were often grateful for the presence of any paper money. Then, a few pages later, we are told the same thing again. Repeating a point for emphasis is good, but combined with labored prose, the repetition makes for annoying reading. What's worse is that some of the background … more

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review by TheAncientReader. December 24, 2007

INTERESTING AND WORTHWHILE READ

I admit to one of those folks who thrive on trivia, in particular, historical trivia. This book fit my needs perfectly. This history of counterfeting in our country, the United States, is not something that you run across in your everyday history text, nor, with one exception, much less an entire book devoted to the subject. This I liked. The author has done a wonderful job of research and has presented it is a very readable fashion. Mr. Mihm has taken a subject, that at first glance, would seem … more

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review by CharlesAshbacher. December 10, 2007

posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More

A lesson in the operational definition of money

The history of banks and banking in the expanding United States in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is an amazing one. As the frontier moved westward faster than anyone had anticipated, vast new lands were opened up for settlement, producing ever increasing amounts of raw goods. While these goods were valuable, in order for the transactions to be carried out, there needed to me some generally accepted medium of exchange. In other words, there needed to be an adequate supply of … more

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review by Cascadian. December 02, 2007

An economy built on alchemy

A book about counterfeiting runs the risk of going in two, potentially dangerous, directions. It could become a technical tome, full of monetarist detail or obscurities of weights and measures. Or it could be a police story, full of the derring-do of the Secret Service and their predecessors but spare on the historical or economic context of the issues involved. Stephen Mihm should be commended, not only for avoiding these two extremes, but in fact for combining a great deal of historical and economic … more

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