Useless details, missing the big points

The subject matter is fascinating and very little covered by history books. It is obviously very touchy for an English author since it might point to the unfairness of the Versailles treaty.
So this author is endlessly beating around the bush by telling you the price of eggs, train tickets and other data that makes your head spin but he's not developing enough the big picture.

So yes, there was inflation in the 1920s but how did they get there? Why did the Kaiser abdicate? Who took power? What was the mechanisms of tax collection and why did they collapse?
The treaty of Versailles and the subsequent adjustments to the war reparation are mentioned in very few sentences, but very under developed...

So if you want to know how much was an egg in Berlin during 1920, 1921, 1922... etc go ahead and get this book.
The author is incredibly proud of this data and he assumes you know all the other details of the Weimar Germany.
Well, I didn't so I expected a lot more...

28 people found this helpful

May be a very underrated book

Got a little tired of the story after a while printing printing printing. But the author really gives you the sense of what it was like to be a German at that time. Totally bewildered in a country that didn't seem to have a sense of what was going wrong. Its hard to fathom, but clearly the German people were "softened up" by this spectacular event. Is the author correct in his assertions toward the end that reparations were not responsible? Dunno that I trust the author given there wasn't much theory in this book. However, the author sticks to his guns and that is clearly very interesting. Also interesting in that most history books blame reparations but few clearly spell out that reparations were due in gold notes. Most modern day economists would say printing is not a way to get out of gold payments. And that might be true, but the author seems pretty convincing that the Germans weren't attempting that folly.

Had the author introduced a much higher degree of economic analysis, I feel that the emotional impact would have been far less. Its kind of like reading Dickens and then complaining you didn't get any Malthus in the text. This book if you really stay with it can really bring home the emotional impact of what it was like to be a German pre-Hitler. Had the author delved into how Hitler comes to power and/or the economic theories behind the printing of money and the gold based reparations payments, the emotional impact would have been lost.

I give it five stars... to stay disciplined with such a subject... to write what had to be written knowing full well you would only be a part piece of the puzzle... thats a thing we don't get from authors very much these days. Thanks to the authors. If the author is correct about the last part (I just don't know that much about the history of those times)... wow... just wow... very illuminating. He doesn't really provide alot of justification for the claims at the end just sort of lays them out there. To understand all of that and not change the scope is a gift to the reader. So my long winded advice is to appreciate the narrow scope, appreciate the seemingly endless monetary printing, and let wash over you what it means to sing "Deutschland Uber-alles" pre-Hitler. Getting transported back in time is priceless.

8 people found this helpful

Disappointed

This book did have its interesting tidbits and the narrator is fine, so I didn't feel I wasted a credit or anything. But due to this being such a fascinating subject, I was rather disappointed. the writer wrote it like a boring history text and left me with more question then he answered. I hope I can find other books on this subject.

6 people found this helpful

informative

This book enlightened me on many shades of the hyperinflation in Germany, both before WWI, after, and leading up to WWII. The narrator, though not so spirited, does a decent job. I think if you're not already interested in the subject, this would bore you though. It's packed with information.

5 people found this helpful

Academic in a good way, granular, esoteric.

I just finished reading, “When Money Dies.”

As this country (USA) goes through the madness of money printing, this book easily scares the hell out of me.

“When Money Dies,” written by Adam Fergusson in 1975 surrounding the events of the nightmare of deficit spending, devaluation, and hyperinflation in Weimar Germany, is so eerily similar to contemporary events as to simply be “head shaking.”

Man oh man, you’ve got to be kidding me! Do any of the “ruling elite” read history?

This book, written in 1975 about past events in Germany, could easily be updated in a similar book in 2021 about contemporary events in the USA.

What happened a century ago in Germany looks to be very likely to occur today in the USA and other countries around the world.

This book is granular; if one wants detail, one is going to get it.

Sadly, I feel this book may be a bit esoteric in that only a few seem interested to want to learn the lessons of history.

Bottom line?

Prepare for disaster.

Abandon sound money and everything dies and/or suffers horribly!

3 people found this helpful

Store up on seeds and Weapons

Very informative, but could have been more informative. Yet for an 8 hour read or short book it tells a lot about post WW I central Europe. It must have been an extremely difficult time for Germans, Austrians and Hungarians. If this situation occurrs again in Europe or the US, which as we know history repeats then the duration and outcome will be much more dramatic. The daily massive inflation, hunger and unemployment these people endured, I feel a similar situation in the US would incurr civil unrest the world has never seen. Revolutionary like.....Russia? or Fascism?

3 people found this helpful

similar times ahead

hyperinflation will happen to us dollar due to debasement. owning assets will be key to retaining value, and to have items to barter with will be key

2 people found this helpful

holy inflation this

this book describes detailed events of what leads up to certain inflation scenarios Epic book

1 person found this helpful

It can't happen again! Can it?

Required reading for everyone in finance. This is history, and has happened repeatedly. It can't happen again! Can it?

2 people found this helpful

Timely

Excellent. Well written, well researched. Much of it could be taken from the New York Times today. If we do not learn from our mistakes we are doomed to repeat them.
Read, learn, prepare.