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Simon & Schuster UK has won David McWilliams’ Money: A Story of Humanity, described as “Sapiens (by Yuval Noah Harari, Vintage) for Money”.
Assallah Tahir, non-fiction editorial director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Marianne Gun O’Connor at The Marianne Gunn O’Connor Literary, Film and TV Agency. Publication is scheduled for 12th September 2024. Money has sold in 12 other territories so far, and the publisher says a “major event” at the Southbank Centre is planned for 11th September,
The book’s synopsis reads: “Over the last 5,000 years money has driven trade, revolutions and discoveries, inspired art, science, philosophy and put a price [on] human desire. It is essential to our daily lives, but most of us – economists included – don’t really understand it. In his illuminating book, McWilliams explores the history of money, explaining what is, how it works and how societies that adopted money acquired a competitive and organisational advantage over others.”
Over the course of the book, McWilliams charts the relationship between humans and money through defining innovations – from a tally stick in ancient Africa to cryptocurrency and beyond. “Along the way,” the publisher continues, “we meet a host of characters who have innovated with money, disrupting society and changing the way we live.”
David McWilliams is an economist and broadcaster based in Dublin. He writes a weekly column for the Irish Times, hosts ‘The David McWilliams Podcast’, and is co-founder of the Dalkey Book Festival and Kilkenomics – dubbed the world’s only economics and comedy festival. He is also adjunct professor of global economics at Trinity College Dublin.
McWilliams said: “Working with Simon & Schuster has been a wonderful experience, particularly with Assallah Tahir, who has guided the development of the book from the start. I always felt that my own tribe, economists, don’t really understand money, what it does to us, how it shapes our world and its critical role in animating human flourishing. That’s what I’ve set out to reveal in this book – I hope readers enjoy it!”
Tahir said: “Money is enlightening, often funny and always immensely entertaining – David has a great way of making complex ideas easily digestible. He tells a new story of money which places humans – ingenious and endlessly fallible – at the centre rather than on the periphery. I can’t wait for readers to discover it.”