Face Value: The Entwined Histories of Money and Race in AmericaThe cultural historian and author of Keep Watching analyses American ideas about race, money, identity, and their surprising connections through history. From colonial history to the present, Americans have passionately, even violently, debated the nature and of money. Is it a symbol of the value of human work and creativity, or a symbol of some natural, intrinsic value? In Face Value, Michael O’Malley provides a penetrating historical analysis of American thinking about money and the ways that this ambivalence intertwines with race. Like race, money is bound up in questions of identity and worth, each a kind of shorthand for the different values of two similar things. O’Malley illuminates how these two socially constructed hierarchies are deeply rooted in American anxieties about authenticity and difference. In this compelling work of cultural history, O’Malley interprets a wide array of historical sources to evaluate competing ideas about monetary value and social distinctions. More than just a history, Face Value offers a new way of thinking about the present culture of coded racism, gold fetishism, and economic uncertainty. “This is a ‘big idea’ book that no one but Michael O’Malley could even have thought of—much less pulled off with such nuance and clarity.”—Scott A. Sandage, author of Born Losers |
Contents
1 | |
1 This New Black Flesh Coin | 11 |
2 Banking on Slavery | 44 |
3 Rags Blacking and Paper Soldiers | 83 |
4 Gold Money and the Constitution of Man | 124 |
Other editions - View all
Face Value: The Entwined Histories of Money and Race in America Michael O'Malley Limited preview - 2012 |
Face Value: The Entwined Histories of Money and Race in America Michael O'Malley No preview available - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
African Americans antebellum argued Bank of England Bank’s bankers banknotes bills bonds capital carpetbagger central bank character cial circulation Civil coins colonial commodity Congress counterfeit debate DeBow’s Review Defoe dollars economic Equiano exchange Federal Reserve Federal Reserve System Fort Knox Franklin freedom Friedman gold and silver gold bug gold or silver gold standard greenbacks historians History Ibid idea identity imagined immigrants inflation insisted intrinsic value issued Knox labor legal tender Lincoln looked meaning minstrel minstrel show Monetary money supply Morgan Narrative National natural law negotiation negro Ninger Olaudah Equiano paper money political race racial difference racial equality racial slavery racism redeem Roosevelt Rothbard Secret Service sense shinplasters slavery slaves Smith social soldiers Sound Currency South Southern specie speculative stability things tion trade Treasury Union United untermyer vault Venture Venture Smith Walker wanted wealth white supremacy wrote York