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Article: Frozen Desire: The Meaning of Money.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- November 10, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Frozen Desire: The Meaning of Money, by James Buchan (Farrar, 320 pp., $25)
The History of Money, by Jack Weatherford (Crown, 293 pp., $25)
Mr. Laughland is the author of The Tainted Source: The Undemocratic Origins of the European Idea.
IF ONE thing proves the conservative conviction that established institutions are usually wiser than individuals, but that those institutions represent a delicate balance which rulers upset at society's peril, it is the history of money.
Edmund Burke's prescience in 1790 in saying that the French Revolution would lead to terror was probably thanks to his acute disgust at the revolutionaries' monetary policy. ...