Gold - 4.Gold: The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal by Matthew Hart

 Product Details

Print Length: 305 pages

Page Numbers Source ISBN: B00GG006L6

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December 3, 2013)

Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc

Language: English

ASIN: B00BSAZ5A6

          In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the price of gold skyrocketed—in three years more than doubling from $800 an ounce to $1900. This massive spike drove 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 extraordinary story of how gold became the world’s most precious commodity.

          Beginning with a page-turning dispatch from the crime-ridden 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. Hart describes each boom and bust in gold’s long story, culminating in the swift and startling emergence of China as the world’s new gold titan. In writing that Publishers Weekly calls “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.

   

4/5 Everything you wanted to know about gold (maybe more) 

By W. Gaboda on January 30, 2014

This book is a geek's guide to gold: one learns EVERYTHING about this mysterious metal, especially its rarity and difficulty of production. The section that describes descending MILES into the South African rocks is enough to make one shudder with claustrophobia.

Even more enlightening is the description of the 'blood' aspect of production: the desperate labor of the poor and often lawless miners is chilling. Amazing efforts go into producing minuscule amounts of this pretty but not especially useful metal.

If you are of a technical mind-set or are interested in gold for its monetary aspects, this book makes a very good read.

          I believe that this book will teach its readers about the effects that the introduction of gold had on society, and what reproductions occurred because of it.