Gold: The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the price of gold has skyrocketed-in three years, it has more than doubled from $800 an ounce to $1,900. This massive spike kicked off an unprecedented global gold-mining and exploration boom, much bigger than the Gold Rush of the 1800s. In Gold, acclaimed author Matthew Hart takes you on an unforgettable journey around the world and through history to tell the incredible story of how gold became the world's most precious commodity.



Beginning with a dispatch from the crime-ridden, dangerous inferno of the world's deepest mine, Hart pulls back to survey gold's tempestuous past. From the earliest civilizations-6,000 years ago, when gold was an icon of sacred and kingly power-Hart tracks its evolution, through conquest, murder, and international mayhem, into the speculative casino-chip that the metal has become. On this spellbinding journey, you will witness the Spanish plunder of the New World, a century of pillage that crushed the glittering Inca empire of the Andes and transferred its staggering wealth to Europe. Hart describes each boom and bust in gold's long story, each panic and shock, with a masterful storytelling hand, leading up to the present day-to the London vaults that hold the multi-ton hoards of such shadowy investors as the American gold fund called "the Spider," to the amazing gold-rich bamboo forests of eastern Senegal, and to the piratical carnival of theft that enlivens the world's greatest gold-producing engine: China.



With writing described by Publishers Weekly as "polished and fiery," Hart weaves together history and cutthroat economics to reveal the human dramas that have driven our lust for a precious yellow metal.
1115953531
Gold: The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the price of gold has skyrocketed-in three years, it has more than doubled from $800 an ounce to $1,900. This massive spike kicked off an unprecedented global gold-mining and exploration boom, much bigger than the Gold Rush of the 1800s. In Gold, acclaimed author Matthew Hart takes you on an unforgettable journey around the world and through history to tell the incredible story of how gold became the world's most precious commodity.



Beginning with a dispatch from the crime-ridden, dangerous inferno of the world's deepest mine, Hart pulls back to survey gold's tempestuous past. From the earliest civilizations-6,000 years ago, when gold was an icon of sacred and kingly power-Hart tracks its evolution, through conquest, murder, and international mayhem, into the speculative casino-chip that the metal has become. On this spellbinding journey, you will witness the Spanish plunder of the New World, a century of pillage that crushed the glittering Inca empire of the Andes and transferred its staggering wealth to Europe. Hart describes each boom and bust in gold's long story, each panic and shock, with a masterful storytelling hand, leading up to the present day-to the London vaults that hold the multi-ton hoards of such shadowy investors as the American gold fund called "the Spider," to the amazing gold-rich bamboo forests of eastern Senegal, and to the piratical carnival of theft that enlivens the world's greatest gold-producing engine: China.



With writing described by Publishers Weekly as "polished and fiery," Hart weaves together history and cutthroat economics to reveal the human dramas that have driven our lust for a precious yellow metal.
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Gold: The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal

Gold: The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal

by Matthew Hart

Narrated by David Drummond

Unabridged — 8 hours, 1 minutes

Gold: The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal

Gold: The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal

by Matthew Hart

Narrated by David Drummond

Unabridged — 8 hours, 1 minutes

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Overview

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the price of gold has skyrocketed-in three years, it has more than doubled from $800 an ounce to $1,900. This massive spike kicked off an unprecedented global gold-mining and exploration boom, much bigger than the Gold Rush of the 1800s. In Gold, acclaimed author Matthew Hart takes you on an unforgettable journey around the world and through history to tell the incredible story of how gold became the world's most precious commodity.



Beginning with a dispatch from the crime-ridden, dangerous inferno of the world's deepest mine, Hart pulls back to survey gold's tempestuous past. From the earliest civilizations-6,000 years ago, when gold was an icon of sacred and kingly power-Hart tracks its evolution, through conquest, murder, and international mayhem, into the speculative casino-chip that the metal has become. On this spellbinding journey, you will witness the Spanish plunder of the New World, a century of pillage that crushed the glittering Inca empire of the Andes and transferred its staggering wealth to Europe. Hart describes each boom and bust in gold's long story, each panic and shock, with a masterful storytelling hand, leading up to the present day-to the London vaults that hold the multi-ton hoards of such shadowy investors as the American gold fund called "the Spider," to the amazing gold-rich bamboo forests of eastern Senegal, and to the piratical carnival of theft that enlivens the world's greatest gold-producing engine: China.



With writing described by Publishers Weekly as "polished and fiery," Hart weaves together history and cutthroat economics to reveal the human dramas that have driven our lust for a precious yellow metal.

Editorial Reviews

AudioFile

David Drummond's narration adds to the intrigue with a deep, reverberating voice that grabs listeners' attention.

From the Publisher

"David Drummond's narration adds to the intrigue with a deep, reverberating voice that grabs listeners' attention." ---AudioFile

Boston Globe

"Hart’s book offers a compelling, stylish, and impressively researched portrait of the history and economics of a metal that has disrupted the world order while enriching some and ruining countless others... He is a talented storyteller."

Mining.com

"Gold does a splendid job of transporting readers from one defining moment in the history of gold to the next."

Forumblog.com

[E]ngaging and rollicking

The Daily Beast

[A]n impressionistic portrait of an industry that blends history, science, colorful character sketches, and lively firsthand accounts of the author’s travels

Columbus Dispatch

In his absorbing book Gold, Matthew Hart looks at the precious metal both as a mineral … and as an idea that has evolved in dizzyingly strange ways through the millenniums.

Booklist

From deep within the gold mines of South Africa and China to corporate boardrooms, from miners and thieves to body guards and gold traders, Hart (Diamond, 2001) offers a fascinating look at the geology, geopolitics, and economics of gold.

Kirkus Reviews

2013-11-11
Overview of gold's perpetual dominance over modern and past societies, focused on historical and economic issues. Characterizing the preceding millennium's obsession with gold as "a murderous, cruel, intoxicating, brutal adventure," Hart (The Irish Game: A True Story of Crime and Art, 2004, etc.) moves swiftly from discussing current armed conflicts in South African mines to Francisco Pizarro's 16th-century assault on the Incan people, which filled Spain's imperial coffers and accelerated Europe's gold-based economy. The author's general approach is to flit between multiple elements pertaining to the topic. Several chapters examine the controversial concept of economies based on the "gold standard" of direct exchange: "The strict operation of the gold standard sent regular waves of misery through the world, as the vagaries of trade would drain a gold supply and lacerate an economy." This resulted in regular convulsions within the United States, providing grist for conspiracy theorists. Hart focuses on watersheds like the 1892 run on gold, Franklin Roosevelt's executive order barring gold hoarding, and the lesser-known account of Richard Nixon's suspension of gold convertability in a startling prime-time speech. Today, the author argues that shadowy gold trading groups like the British "Spider" (from SPDR Gold Shares) establish the market value of gold using complex methodologies not unlike those that precipitated the Great Recession. He also looks at how gold fever has seized post-reform China, the eccentric geologists whose innovations led to enormous strikes beginning in the 1950s, and pulpy tales of stolen gold. Hart is a fine close-in journalist, gathering many engaging facts and anecdotes about gold's production and endless manipulation within the world economy and human psychology, but the lack of a compelling central narrative makes the work feel less cohesive. Recommended for those determined to speculate in gold as an alleged hedge against economic tremors.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940170550371
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Publication date: 12/03/2013
Edition description: Unabridged
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