by Stephen Mihm
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Product Description
Listen to a short interview with Stephen Mihm
Host: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane Few of us question the slips of green paper that come and go in our purses, pockets, and wallets. Yet confidence in the money supply is a recent phenomenon: prior to the Civil War, the United States did not have a single, national currency. Instead, countless banks issued paper money in a bewildering variety of denominations and designs--more than ten thousand different kinds by 1860. Counterfeiters flourished amid this anarchy, putting vast quantities of bogus bills into circulation. Their success, Stephen Mihm reveals, is more than an entertaining tale of criminal enterprise: it is the story of the rise of a country defined by a freewheeling brand of capitalism over which the federal government exercised little control. It was an era when responsibility for the country's currency remained in the hands of capitalists for whom "making money" was as much a literal as a figurative undertaking. Mihm's witty tale brims with colorful characters: shady bankers, corrupt cops, charismatic criminals, and brilliant engravers. Based on prodigious research, it ranges far and wide, from New York City's criminal underworld to the gold fields of California and the battlefields of the Civil War. We learn how the federal government issued greenbacks for the first time and began dismantling the older monetary system and the counterfeit economy it sustained. A Nation of Counterfeiters is a trailblazing work of history, one that casts the country's capitalist roots in a startling new light. Readers will recognize the same get-rich-quick spirit that lives on in the speculative bubbles and confidence games of the twenty-first century. (20070921)
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 I really hate to do this..., 2008-08-22
Honestly, I do. I'm not a quitter and I commit to following things through most of the time, and that includes books. I absolutely detest starting to read a book and then quitting in the middle.
I couldn't even make it past the first chapter of this book. The writing is so dry. I figured that this would actually be a really interesting book to read, given the subject matter, but I was so wrong. Perhaps in another author's hands, it would have been, but I just could not get past the writing. It was nearly putting me to sleep. I tried several times before giving up altogether.
I can't recommend this book to anyone...it will induce a coma.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A Story ABout Our Currency, 2008-07-18
In the last ten years or so it seems the Americam paper currency has been redesigned at least two times. More colors have been added, flecks added to the paper, and various watermarks and clues in the paper currency make our paper dollars somewhat cryptic.
That's because people counterfeit the Almight Dollar. And with more and more sophisticated printers and equipment being made, the battle to combat counterfeiters is getting harder and harder.
This book looks at the history of our currency we don't often hear about. This book looks at the many ways and methods, past and present, that paper currency of the United States has been counterfeited. In a sense the author blames the government itself for not being so controlling of its economy. Yeah, we can't have that laxity, we need central control. Could it be that, until recently, the dollar was so strong and universally accepted that counterfeiting the dollar was an attractive option?
The book is a rather enlightening look at this aspect of American history and its economy.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Interesting survey of the shadow economy of the United States, 2008-07-17
It's hard to imagine a time when the value of paper money was so nebulous that some counterfeits were regarded more highly than legitimate bank notes, but for nearly a century, the United States monetary system functioned in a bizarre netherworld where nothing short of actual specie could be taken at face value.
Libertarians will probably hate this book, because Mihm clearly sees the virtues in a strong centralized government (or bank, in the case of the 1st & 2nd BUS) keeping the nation's currency supply tightly regulated. From the early days of the Republic, up until the Civil War, Mihm paints a picture of a monetary free-for-all where "legitimate" bankers were often as disreputable (or worse) than the criminal counterfeiters. At times, they were one & the same, and honest tradesmen & customers suffered as a result. I cannot even begin to imagine the paranoia that a merchant must have felt whenever a bank note was tendered for goods & services. Good old days, my foot.
Mihm's very entertaining & well-written account is a pretty compelling argument for why complete lack of regulation really is not a good thing. Ask anyone whose livelihood was wiped out by doing business with a shady bank if they thought that perhaps some government regulation of private enterprise might have been in the public good. The end of slavery wasn't the only good thing to come from the Civil War.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A Social History of an Economic Phenomenon, 2008-07-14
For American counterfeiters, the first half of the 19th Century was an age of gold (or should one say "pyrite"?). For most of that period, the United States had no central bank; throughout all of it, the great bulk of the currency in circulation consisted of notes issued by state-chartered banks. Since there were hundreds of these issuers, it was relatively easy to slip bogus notes into the system. Larcenous entrepreneurs were quick to seize this opportunity. Their activities bedeviled merchants and honest bankers. The effort needed to detect counterfeits imposed significant transaction costs on the economy, though phony bills may have benefited areas where currency would otherwise have been scarce. It is remarkable that large scale counterfeiting didn't lead to intolerable inflation and reversion to a barter economy. Rather, the U.S. economy grew briskly in the long run, interrupted by the occasional panic and recession.
Mr. Mihm's book describes and analyzes what might be called the "social" element of counterfeiting: who the counterfeiters were, how they printed and distributed bills and evaded law enforcement, what businessmen and the government did in response, how the public viewed the contest. In doing so, he brings to light a great deal of forgotten history, full of colorful characters and fascinating events. On the economic side of the story - the actual effects of counterfeiting on consumption and production - he is silent, except for off-hand sniping at the "confidence game" (his term) of capitalism. His book is in no sense a prequel to Friedman and Schwartz's Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960. For what it does, however, it is first rate.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Very interesting , 2008-06-19
Like many I didn't realize that we did not have a national currency until well after our country was founded. It was fascinating to learn that many banks used to print their own currency and how this system could be, and was, often manipulated and abused. I thought many times of Ayn Rand when reading this and her notions of money/work and felt like this book explained where her ideas came from. Thorughly enjoyable and recommended.
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