An acclaimed historian offers a radical new history of the links between politics and economics, one that draws unsettling conclusions about the future of both capitalism and democracy Does money make the world go round, as Cabaret's Master of Ceremonies sang to us? In The Cash Nexus, acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson offers a radical and surprising answer-No. Conventional wisdom has long claimed that economic change is the prime mover of political change, whether in the age of industry or the Internet. In our own time Paul Kennedy has claimed that economics provided the key to international power, while Francis Fukuyama and others have argued that capitalism doomed socialism and ensured the victory of democracy. Small wonder politicians are obsessed with the economy: the Clinton campaign motto-"It's the economy stupid"-sums up a central tenet of modern life. But is it the economy? Ferguson thinks it is high time we re-examined the link-the "nexus," to use Thomas Carlyle's term-between economics and politics, in the aftermath not only of the failure of socialism but also of the apparent triumph of American-style capitalism. His central argument is that the conflicting impulses of sex, violence, and power are together more powerful than money. In particular, political events and institutions have often dominated economic development. A bold synthesis of political history and modern economic theory, The Cash Nexus will transform the landscape of modern history and draw challenging and unsettling conclusions about the prospects of both capitalism and democracy.

尼爾·弗格森，英國最著名的曆史學傢之一。哈佛大學曆史係教授、牛津大學高級研究員，同時也是斯坦福大學鬍佛研究所的高級研究員。他是極少數能橫跨學術界、金融界和媒體的專傢之一。著有《貨幣崛起》等多部暢銷書，同時還為多傢報紙和雜誌撰稿。此外，他還製作瞭四部非常成功的電視紀錄片：《帝國》、《美國巨人》、《世界戰爭》，以及最近的《貨幣崛起》。2004年被《時代》周刊評為“影響世界的100人”之一。