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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 398.365
EAN num: 9780470091005
ISBN number: 0470091002
Label: Wiley
Manufacturer: Wiley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: November 05, 2004
Publishing house: Wiley
Sale Popularity Level: 60566
Studio: Wiley
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Incorporating myth, history and contemporary investigation, Bernstein tells the story of how human beings have become intoxicated, obsessed, enriched, impoverished, humbled and proud for the sake of gold. From the past to the future, Bernstein's portrayal of gold is intimately linked to the character of humankind.
Amazon.com Review:
In the very first chapter of his book The Power of Gold, Peter Bernstein quotes the immortal words of King Ferdinand of Spain, who once declared: 'Get gold, humanely if possible, but at all hazards--get gold.' As ensuing chapters reveal, man's obsession with finding, keeping, selling, and evaluating gold has rarely been a humane adventure and has always been a hazardous one. Digging deeply into history's treasury of torrid tales and complicated deals, Bernstein examines gold's lure with an economist's passion for quantification, a historian's eye for detail, and a sociologist's feel for its consequence.
Useless as a metal for most practical purposes, gold originally held value as decoration and adornment for the wealthy ancients. Later, it was minted and used as coins by the Lydians in 635 B.C. That, Bernstein goes on to reveal, put gold on a path from the concrete to the abstract, from evidence of wealth to the standard behind wealth in other forms, and finally to the tenuous place it holds in today's virtual world of credit cards and computer chips. Along the way lie wild stories of lives destroyed, fortunes won and quickly lost, and values transformed: the massacre by the Spanish invader Pizarro, whose small band of men decimated the formidable army of Emperor Atahualpa, 'the Inca,' through more duplicity than military skill; the roller-coaster ride of the 1890s, when the rippling impact of the Baring Brothers bank crisis in Britain sent the isolated United States into an economic meltdown; and the surplus of the Gold Coast natives of Timbuktu, who willingly traded their gold for much-needed salt, ounce for ounce.
Bernstein is a great storyteller. His accounts of mythological, ancient, and recent history ooze with odd and entertaining details that bring each successive tale of obsession to life. If not for his skill, the sheer volume of events collected here--presented more anecdotally than systematically--would be overwhelming. In the end, though, it is Bernstein's fascination with the power of gold to entangle and entrap its possessors, and its ultimate ability to change the course of entire eras and civilizations, that makes his book as fascinating as it is informative. A dense but entertaining read. --S. Ketchum
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Rated by buyers 
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The Power of Gold is the best history book I have ever read. The book traces the history of gold as currency from 500 B.C. through the 20th Century. It is full of fascinating vingettes. Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton was the last of the magicians? An academic recluse until the age of 58 he emerged from his chrysilis to become head of the English mint and a social dandy. Did you know that salt was as valuable as gold in Africa; or that the camel was introduced into Africa to replace the oxen for hauling gold across the Sahara desert; or that the Saharan gold traders never saw each other, but engaged in "blind barter" to conceal the source of the gold from the Europeans? The chapters on the demise of the Gold Standard and the Great Deprtession are a must read for anyone wanting to understand our present fiscal crisis. Simply a Materpiece!
Rated by buyers -
Recently, I have noticed a decline in the value of the dollar in the market and great increase of gold. Even the gold went over one thousand dollar at one point. Then, I came to thinking: what if we might be heading to some kind of economy collapse in our near future where our dollars in the banks will disappear overnight and we will be left penniless and head into a great debt without much a warning. Then, it would be likely that gold and silver might return to being as values/standards of money for survival purposes in the event of economy collapse. At least, that is my understanding of using gold.
Before this year, I rarely take notice of gold and often thought of it as just piece of metal. And, I often wondered why gold would be such a big deal or why would gold became a driving motivation behind every nation's growth. Again, I thought, "they are pieces of metals, nothing more...geez, it sounds like everyone is obsessed with such illusion. Why do we even bother?" Then, I was recommended to this book by Peter Bernstein.
"The Power of Gold: The History of Obsession" is very intriguing and easy to read, with only twenty chapters and roughly four hundred pages. It is certainly a book that I could not put down because it answered some of my questions on the subject, or at least to my understanding. I really liked reading about the histories of gold from the ancient times to present, including the stories of Lydian and Greek as well of Johann Sutter in the time of California gold rush. Also, it was interesting to acquire an understanding about the attitude of the people towards gold in the aftermath of The Black Death during the mid-fourteenth century.
I most certainly agreed with the author when he said the following:
"Those who believed that gold was a hedge against the uncertainties of life failed to understand that the pursuit of eternity is not to be satisfied by gold, or by anything else we choose to replace gold - dollars, euros, whatever. Gold and its surrogates make sense only as a means to an end: to beautify, to adorn, to exchange for what we need and really want." (p. 372)
After reading this book, I have gained a better understanding about gold itself: how it was viewed, how it was and is being used, and why were/are people obsessed with gold. Gold may be a piece of metal, but it seems to serve mult-purposes.
I am no economist or trader, but I found this book to be an enlightening read and very informative about the gold's nature, its history, and its relationship with humanity.
Rated by buyers 
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The older edition (Aug 30, 2000) has more pages (448 instead of 304) but costs more ($39.00). Comparing the table of contents between the 2 editions, it appears that the very first 14 chapters and 207 pages are identical between the two editions but the new 2004 illustrated edition may have discarded or condensed some of the later chapters. The older 2000 edition is still available from Amazon if you look further down in search results for this title.
Rated by buyers -
Peter Bernstein's "The Power of Gold" is an interesting read. It begins with a series of anecdotes on the history of hold - from the Israelites to King Midas to Crassus to Pizarro and everything in between.
Suddenly, the anecdotes stop and instead the reader faces down some pretty hard core history of the gold standard and the economics therein. The change in tone was startling. Eric Conger, the reader on the abridged audio cassette handles it in stride and does his best to keep the tone and material light.
Bernstein sets gold up as a villain in the lives of men and men's quest for gold does not usually turn out the way they plan. Bernstein details the evolution and subsequent gold standard and in so doing, uses the images of the anecdotes told previously. One of the more powerful and useful images was that of the merchant who was on a ship when it began to sink. Carrying all of his gold, the merchant jumped overboard and promptly sank - which poses the question, did the merchant possess the gold or did the gold possess the merchant?
Once the nations of the world were off the gold standard, the market fluctuated wildly. It reached its zenith when it peaked at $850 an ounce in 1980. When Bernstein published the audio edition in 2000, gold had promptly gone downhill precipitously with a price below $300 an ounce. Bernstein all but closes the door on gold pronouncing that its time in the monetary system come and gone and its uses as a hedge non-existant.
But just before Bernstein hammers in the last nail of gold's coffin, he quotes economist Robert Mundell who stated that gold would make a comeback in the 21st century. Sure enough, on January 14, 2008 (or 3 days before this review), gold was trading at a record $914 an ounce showing that gold's use as an enduring hedge seems as durable as gold itself.
Rated by buyers -
The Power of Gold was lent to me by a colleague at work, a fellow market analyst. He and I talk monetary policy on a fairly regular basis, so he thought I'd like to give this book a read. Indeed, he was correct.
In brief, this is a book which tracks the use of gold from a monetary perspective through most of human civilization. If you're at all interested in history, then this book is definitely right up your alley. It takes a look at world events from a perspective that you won't find in many other sources. Primarily that means focusing on how gold was (or was not) the main focal point of money and trade. I personally didn't care for the author's occassional forays into discussions of the decor of various palaces and whatnot, but they weren't too distracting. Beyond that, it was a very well written book, and a pleasant read.
The really interesting stuff from a my perspective as a trader and analyst, of course, is the latter part of the book where it gets to modern times. I personally found the whole discusion of the 20th century, which was probably the last third or more of the book, to be the most meaningful. The author really presents an excellent discusion of various perspectives and efforts related to different countries being on or off the gold standard and how that all played out in both domestic and global economies.
One of the things which has come up in modern political, social, and economic discussions is the idea of going back on the gold standard. There have been some very prominent proponents. If you want to get an idea of what that might look like, how that might play out in the global trade and economic modern environment, you'll definitely want to give The Power of Gold a read. It will really have you thinking about the complexity of it all, and the implications.
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