By Jack Weatherford
Three Rivers Press
New York, New York
1997

Reviewed by Dynamic Steward Staff

What is this grip that money has on us? And why does the world spin around money? Must we not know the answers that bar the secrets of this beast, money? From a detailed study of primitive man’s cowry shells to the electronic cash card, from the markets of Timbuktu to the New York Stock Exchange, The History of Money explores how money and the myriad forms of exchange have affected humanity, and how they will continue to shape all aspects of our lives--economic, political, and personal.

Although this book is from the point of view of anthropology and not Christian stewardship, author and anthropologist Jack Weatherford masterfully traces our relationship with money and explains why this relationship has evolved into a force that controls the world we live in. This is a story of the revolutionary transformation of the meaning and use of money, a story that every stewardship educator must know and understand to better educate God’s people who live in a world and society gripped by the vice of money.