Is money “real” or just a set of agreements? Perhaps it is both.

Historian Yuval Noah Harari calls money an intersubjective reality, meaning that money is real and has value because we and other people agree that it’s real and has value. Still, some types of money seem to be more real and accepted than others, both now and in the long history of humankind.

To gain perspective on today’s money, we will look at how money worked in past societies, from Babylon to Rome and China, and from Colonial to present-day America. We will see how money succeeded and failed, and how it evolved from agricultural commodities to precious metals, and ultimately to its paper, digital and “crypto” forms. Along the way, we will learn how economic, social, and political systems tried to control money, and how money took on its own life and changed those systems in return.

The course will include presentations on history, past and present theories of money, and case studies of specific events and trends. The aim is to make a complex topic approachable, discussable, and even fun. Using what we learn, we will discuss and critique our current fiat-money system and develop ideas about where it may lead us next.