Synopses & Reviews
From colonial history to the present, Americans have passionately, even violently, debated the nature and the character of money. They have painted it and sung songs about it, organized political parties around it, and imprinted it with the name of Godandmdash;all the while wondering: is money a symbol of the value of human work and creativity, or a symbol of some natural, intrinsic value?
In Face Value, Michael Oandrsquo;Malley provides a deep history and a penetrating analysis of American thinking about money and the ways that this ambivalence unexpectedly intertwines with race. Like race, money is bound up in questions of identity and worth, each a kind of shorthand for the different values of two similar things. Oandrsquo;Malley illuminates how these two socially constructed hierarchies are deeply rooted in American anxieties about authenticity and difference.
In this compelling work of cultural history, Oandrsquo;Malley interprets a stunning array of historical sources to evaluate the comingling of ideas about monetary value and social distinctions. More than just a history, Face Value offers us a new way of thinking about the present culture of coded racism, gold fetishism, and economic uncertainty.
Review
"Michael Oand#8217;Malleyand#8217;s witty, insightful
Face Value traces the American quest for a stable source of value in a society that prized freedom.Through deft analysis of a wide range of sources, O'Malley shows that arguments over money and arguments over race have had much in common, and indeed, have often intersected in the United States in surprising and disturbing waysand#8212;even now. Most important is Oand#8217;Malleyand#8217;s contention that the monetary chaos of the nineteenth century, which has bewildered so many students of American history, turned whiteness into a crucial sign of individual worth."
Review
and#8220;This is a and#8216;big ideaand#8217; book that no one but Michael Oand#8217;Malley could even have thought ofand#8212;much less pulled off with such nuance and clarity. From the wampum that sustained the Pilgrims to the gold fever that accompanied the Obama presidency, this swift-moving, plain-talking book explains how and#8216;the money questionand#8217; and and#8216;the race questionand#8217; are really two sides of the same coin. Grounded in smartly told stories about fascinating historical characters, and written in a conversational style that is wry but never cynical, Face Value is worth its weight in ideas.and#8221;
Review
and#160;and#8220;Oand#8217;Malleyand#8217;s new book is a magnificent piece of scholarship on a topic that is at once timely and surprising. Oand#8217;Malley shows our twin national obsessionsand#8212;money and raceand#8212;dancing together across economic policy reports, the pages of literary fiction, the stage, the screen, and the airwaves. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;
Face Value is aand#160;provocative, imaginative, and gracefully written work of cultural history, one that unearths hitherto unimagined connections between markets, money, and race.and#160;In the process, Michael Oand#8217;Malley manages to show how currency, which historians and economists too often treat as timeless and neutral, has for centuries been entangled with the institution and legacy of American slavery.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Face Value extends a powerful tradition of resisting the reduction of economic life to material interest. Stripped of the initial articleandrsquo;s telling invocation of Foucaultandrsquo;s The Order of Things, Oandrsquo;Malleyandrsquo;s long-awaited monograph aspires to do more than explore resemblances between historical discourses.andrdquo;
About the Author
Michael Oandrsquo;Malley is associate professor of history at George Mason University. He is the author of Keeping Watch: A History of American Time and the coeditor of The Cultural Turn in US History.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: This New Black Flesh Coin
Chapter 2: Banking on Slavery
Chapter 3: Rags, Blacking, and Paper Soldiers
Chapter 4: Gold Money and the Constitution of Man
Chapter 5: A Bank in Human Form
Epilogue: Words and Bonds
NotesIndex