Monetary History : Commented Bibliography

The Bimetallic Standard | The Crime of 1873 | François Micheloud's Homepage

In white, my recommended book. Clicking on the titles will bring you to an online bookshop

BAUM, FRANK, 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, George M.Hill : Chicago

Nice monetary allegory of the debate on the free coinage of silver

BURDA, M., WYPLOSZ, C., 1993, Macroeconomics, a European Text, Oxford UP : Oxford
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As good a summary as any on the working of the gold standard, very clear and readable, in a good European Macroeconomics textbook I read several times.

FLANDREAU, M., 1996 a, The Gradient of a River : Bimetallism as an Implicit Fluctuation Band, Unpublished paper given by prof. Wyplosz

Fancy model of the relationship between a currency defined in terms of gold and silver and other currencies defined in terms of one metal only. Good case against the knife-edge theory that bimetallism was unstable

FLANDREAU, M.., 1996 b, Adjusting to the Gold Rush : Endogenous Bullion Points and the French Balance of Payments 1846-1870, Explorations in Economic History 33, 417-439

Lays the foundation of a theory of bullion points for the same problem as the precedent article

FRIEDMAN, M., 1992, The Crime of 1873, in Money Mischief, Harcourt Brace : NY, pp 51-80

FRIEDMAN, M., 1992, Estimating the Effect of Continuing Bimetallism after 1873, in Money Mischief, Harcourt Brace : NY, pp 80-104

FRIEDMAN, M., 1992, William Jennings Bryan and the Cyanide process, in Money Mischief, Harcourt Brace : NY, pp 104-126
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The three above articles are in the same excellent and highly readable book. A book you should definitely read, written for the layman to tell some of the most fascinating episodes of monetary history, and yet as specialist you learn a lot.

FRIEDMAN, M., and SCHWARTZ, A., 1963, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960, Princeton UP : Princeton, pp 89-135
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Excellent by any standard, with a full chapter on the "politics of silver".
An example of simplicity and strict analysis that any educated reader can understand with enough concentration, and yet this is one of the masterpieces of an Economics Nobel Prize winner. Too bad economists don't write like this anymore.
Don’t miss it.

GLAD, P.V., 1991, Mc Kinley, Bryan, & the People, éd.orig. Lippincott : NY

A book devoted to the history of WJ Bryan and the Populist Party from a political point of view.

GREEN, T., 1993, The World of Gold, Rosendale Press : London

A classic book on gold from the beginning to the 1990’s. Chapters 2 and 3 are especially relevant here.

GREIDER, W., 1987, Secrets of the Temple : How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country , Simon and Schuster : New-York, pp 275sq
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The best book about the economic policy of the Reagan years takes a long look behind and discusses the importance of the Bryan's years for today's history. Really an oustanding work, in the New York Times Best Sellers.

GROSSMAN, R.J., and ROSS, E.D., 1996, Gold Bugs versus Silver Fish, in Friends of Financial History, Issue 57 Fall 1996, The Museum of Financial History : NY, pp 20-27

Many illustrations and political cartoons

HALIMI, S., 1996, Le populisme, voilà l’ennemi !, in Le monde diplomatique No 505 Avril 1996, Le Monde : Paris, p.10

One page introduction to american Populism and how you should use that word.

KORTEWEG, S., and KEESING, F.A.G., 1959, A Textbook of Money, Longmans : London, pp 5-10

An old but excellent textbook I happen to have among my books

ROCKOFF, H., 1990, The Wizard of Oz as a Monetary Allegory, in Journal of Political Economy 98 (August 1990) pp 793-60

For those of you that were envious of psychiatrist’s right to comment and interpret litterary works

Illustrations : Pictures I use in my slides were either scanned directly from the books herafter or from the wonderful collection of www.arttoday.com.

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