Lords of Finance: Bankers Who Broke the World book review

 

The Lords of Finance:  The Bankers Who Broke The World, is truly an epic work chronicling the events of the United States and Europe from the period of 1914 through the Great Depression of the 1930s.  Author Liaquat Ahmed recounts the formation of the industrial world’s central banking system and the men who shaped their destinies.  The work weaves together the events of World War I and II against the backdrop of the economic conditions controlled by the rigidity of the banker’s commitment to the gold standard.  It was truly fascinating to learn how people and the struggle for world economic dominance lead to war and depression.  This work is not for the casual reader, but rather for those that have a love for late 19th and early 20th century history of money, politics and war.  I found this book to be extremely insightful in the context of having recently completed The Match King by Frank Partoy and Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw.