Moral Economies of Money

"In this book, Feinig sets out to make money visible as a practice. He does that with breath-taking effect. Brilliant, thought-provoking, and illuminating."—Christine Desan, Harvard University

"An absorbingly rich history of the struggles over money in the United States from colonial 'moral economies' to its expropriation by capitalist banking."—Geoffrey Ingham, University of Cambridge

"In this compelling fusion of sociological insight and historical narrative, Feinig succeeds in clarifying how money politics worked in the past, and why it should be revisited today."—Roy Kreitner, Tel Aviv University

"Moral Economies of Money: Politics and the Monetary Constitution of Society, the outstanding new book by the sociologist Jakob Feinig, shows that it doesn't have to be this way: we need not settle for a monetary system that breeds apathy or withdrawal into conspiracy theory. To the contrary—for much of this country's history, the conspicuous entanglement of fiscal and monetary policy encouraged money users to participate in the design, implementation, and governance of systems for issuing and retiring currency."—Aaron Wistar, Jacobin

"The sociologist Jakob Feinig challenges the dominant view of money as a scarce commodity. His masterful book Moral Economies of Money: Politics and the Monetary Constitution of Society demonstrates that money is an elastic public good."—Sandeep Vaheesan, UCLA Law Review

"To politicize monetary policy is a controversial demand today; to politicize the design of the monetary system can sound positively outlandish. Jakob Feinig's Moral Economies of Money gives us an excellent place to start."—Pierre-Christian Fink, Phenomenal World

"The clarity and concision of Moral Economies makes the enigmatic into something knowable, teachable, and politicizeable—the value of which will be immediately clear to those who, from classroom experience, know the phenomenon of monetary silence all too well."—Stephanie L. Mudge, Just Money

"One of the hallmarks of good historical sociology is that it leads us to see the periods we think we know in a new light. [The Moral Economies of Money] does that in so many ways, both big and small."—Josh Pacewicz, Just Money