In this week's how I got my start in finance you'll hear from acclaimed financial historian Neil Ferguson
He tells Larry McDonald how he developed his unique perspective
Analyzing the history of money and contemporary issues today
Larry I grew up in in Glasgow. I guess we have Scottish roots. Yes in common and
as a boy I was
an avid reader and
I
suppose was inclining towards
Literature until I read Tolstoy's war and peace. I think it was about 15 and
There was really much less to do for young people in those days, especially in Scotland where it rains all the time
yeah, so you either
Playing soccer or reading war and peace that was the choice and a rainy day
I I was reading war and peace and at the end of war and peace Tolstoy reflects on on the lessons of this extraordinary
Novel and indeed the lessons of history
He ends the book with a kind of philosophical essay on the nature of historical determinism, and this really grabbed my attention
And it made me think more seriously about about history as an option. I came from a rather
Scientific family. My mother was a physicist and my my father a doctor. My sister is a physicist
I'm the black sheep of the family, but history appealed to me from then on
Because I found the study of human particles human particles with consciousness somehow more appealing than the study of well
particles the kind of things that
physicists do and so I was lucky to a very inspiring history teacher who encouraged me to pursue my
interest which at that time was in the thirty years war deepened to the inner recesses of the mitchell library in glasgow and
I set my heart and studying history
at Oxford
I'm
unusual
Amongst historians because I'm interested in history mainly for what it teaches us about the present and future
The historian I most admired as a boy was AJP Taylor
a wonderful writer
Who not only produced an extraordinary history books?
But was also happy to be on television and write for the newspapers and appiying about the events of the day
So I suppose at some point. I took it into my fool head
To be an AGP tailor to be a historian who used history to think about contemporary problems
And I could have chased that I've chased that vision or that dog burps
ever since my late teens
that's the key to relating to the masses and that's the key to the bestsellers out of all your amazing pieces of work from
Civilization to ascent what?
What do you think is really the most?
Compelling book moving forward that readers should look at for the next say 3 to 5 to 10 years
What are you mentioned financial acumen? I mean if your
Viewers are mainly interested in in finance. They should probably read their sense of money because of all the books
I've written that that's the one that
Aspires to tell the history of the world in financial terms and as it so happens
I've just produced a new edition of the essential money with two new chapters that take the story up to date
The book was published in 2008. Just a matter of a few weeks before the
Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, but it was written with the expectation of a financial crisis in mind
so it seemed appropriate after ten years to update it and
I think that's that the right starting point for understanding
My approach to the past which has always given finance a relatively high priority
My feeling is I was going through university at Oxford was that but most historians?
Underestimated the importance of financial markets maybe as a Scotsman who was relatively numerous quite good at math
I'm sort of shocked my my English contemporaries at Oxford because they thought history was about kings and queens and yet maybe the old general
But it seemed to me the bankers were just as interesting actually as those people especially in the modern era
but even and the Renaissance the Medici weren't
Originally interested in politics. They were originally forex traders as a yes
So I I suppose I started off thinking hmm. I could maybe have an edge in this history game if I emphasized financial history
So I did a lot of my early work on
kind of obscure stuff like the 19th century bond market and how World War One
functioned in financial terms
I wrote a history of the Rothschild family in
Banks a massive two volume history by the time I wrote the ascent of money
My goal was to try to give financial history a large audience
It was also a six-part PBS series and the goal I had was very simple to explain
The financial system to people and the financial crisis by showing them where it all came from
Because I think if you try and explain the financial system with some kind of flow chart or or even worse a mathematical model
Most people are just baffled. But if you tell them the story of why we have
banks, why money is mostly Bank money or why there is a bond market what the stock market is and where it came from then
It all starts becoming more intelligible. So I
Greatly believe in financial education. I think chronic problem we have in the United States and indeed in most countries is financial illiteracy
The ascent of money was designed to make the whole financial system seem more intelligible by just telling its story
Neil Ferguson has developed a unique view of history and markets for
Ferguson that became a successful career as one of the markets premier financial historians for real vision. I'm Justine Underhill you
You