The Story of Silver
The Story of Silver depicts silver’s transformation from soft money during the nineteenth century to hard asset money today. From Franklin D. Roosevelt’s price increase of silver’s price to pump the US economy, has been the preferred shelter against government defaults, political instability, and inflation for most people in the world because it is cheaper than gold. This book explains how powerful figures, up to and including Warren Buffett, have come under silver’s thrall, and how its history guides economic and political decisions in the twenty-first century.
"The book is entertaining and enlightening. It should appeal to a wide audience, including anyone . . . who likes a well written story. Silber is an architect of palatable prose. . . . Silber's book is insightful and enjoyable. It deserves to be read widely, particularly his chapters on Roosevelt's silver policies and their effect on China. These chapters raise questions about the nature of the United States and why our political system at times pursues policies that benefit small groups of our citizens at the expense not just of the rest of our nation but of the rest of the world."
— Gary Richardson, Regulation
"This is an enjoyable book, combining political and economic history, unlikable people, lucid explanations and an authorial tone that is sometimes firmly tongue-in-cheek."
— Kathleen Burk, Literary Review
"The Story of Silver is the biography of America's first monetary metal. Biography is the word, as William Silber's colorful narrative is one of personalities as much as it is of ideas and events. Like gold, silver can preoccupy its fans to the point of obsession, as it did the Hunt brothers, Texas inflation-phobes who lost a fortune in 1980 by betting on silver and therefore against Paul Volcker, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Mr. Volcker's sky-high interest rates."
— James Grant, Wall Street Journal
"A delightful and instructive read."
— Tony Barber, Financial Times, Summer Books of 2019
"Impeccably researched. . . . There is no shortage of compelling material to ponder."
— John Plender, Financial Times
"Deeply researched and authoritative. . . . A well-informed history of silver's allure."
— Kirkus
"A page-turner of a financial-political multi-generational thriller worthy of, say, John Grisham, filled with larger-than-life speculators, businessmen, manipulators, crooks and politicians."
— Peter Gordon, Asian Review of Books
"Silber, a many-sided professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, is a gifted story-teller."
— David Warsh, Seeking Alpha
"One of the Financial Times' Summer Books of 2019: History"
"The Story of Silver is a wonderful, broad book, full of verve and insight into why various generations―from Queen Elizabeth I to Warren Buffett, Alexander Hamilton to, especially, the infamous Hunt brothers―have been so focused on this slippery stuff."
— Peter Conti-Brown, Business History Review