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Moral Economies of Money: Politics and the Monetary Constitution of Society
For much of American history, large numbers of people claimed that money was a public good and asserted the right to shape money creation practices. If popular knowledge about money creation was once widely shared, how and why did it disappear?
In this astute new work, Jakob Feinig shows how the relation between money users and money-issuing governments changed from British colonial North America to today's United States, discussing how popular movements reshaped money-creating institutions, and how their opponents attempted to silence them. He also reveals how monetary and political history unfolds in the tension between "moral economies of money" and "monetary silencing." Offering an introduction to money creation practices since the colonial era, the book enables readers to understand why most people are disconnected from knowledge about money creation today. At the same time, the book also allows readers to situate the recent prominence of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) against a broader historical background. Historians of capitalism, economic and political sociologists, social theorists, anthropologists of money, and anyone seeking to understand monetary activism, will find this book helps to clarify present-day possibilities in light of historical processes.
In this astute new work, Jakob Feinig shows how the relation between money users and money-issuing governments changed from British colonial North America to today's United States, discussing how popular movements reshaped money-creating institutions, and how their opponents attempted to silence them. He also reveals how monetary and political history unfolds in the tension between "moral economies of money" and "monetary silencing." Offering an introduction to money creation practices since the colonial era, the book enables readers to understand why most people are disconnected from knowledge about money creation today. At the same time, the book also allows readers to situate the recent prominence of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) against a broader historical background. Historians of capitalism, economic and political sociologists, social theorists, anthropologists of money, and anyone seeking to understand monetary activism, will find this book helps to clarify present-day possibilities in light of historical processes.
188 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 4, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 12, 2023
categories like (neo-)chartalism and mmt are most useful for historisizing intellectual movements. but this book shows that the ideas themselves—tax/non-reciprocal obligation-driven money, money as a legal institution for coordinating care and provisioning—do not neatly map onto the same timeline. feinig’s primary sources from the pre-revolution, antebellum, long reconstruction, and new deal eras are a remarkable contribution.
February 24, 2024
Absolutely loved this book, it’s concepts, and how they explained very very challenging concepts
March 16, 2025
Read this for my SOC 392: Sociology of Money class. Loved the class. Didn’t love the book. But I wldnt ever love this type of book so not surprised.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews