Victoria Gierok and Michael Spence for PS Book Recommendations

Your weekly reading inspiration, provided by PS contributors. The PS Book Recommendations newsletter. [View this message in a web browser.]( [PS Book Recommendations]( Welcome to PS Book Recommendations, your weekly source of reading inspiration, provided by PS contributors. This week’s edition features Victoria Gierok, a British Academy Post-Doctoral Fellow in Economic History at Nuffield College at the University of Oxford, and Michael Spence, a Nobel laureate in economics and Professor of Economics Emeritus of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. PS Contributors' Perspectives [The Euro and Its Imperial Ancestors]( By Victoria Gierok Medieval European and Chinese history show that while the establishment of well-functioning common currencies requires political skill and vision, their survival depends on institutions that are free from political influence. The good news for the euro is that it ticks both boxes. [Read the Longer Read](. Silver Empire:]( [How Germany Created Its First Common Currency]( By Oliver Volckart "Volckart, a historian at the London School of Economics, masterfully traces the political tug of war that unfolded in sixteenth-century 'Germany' (what was then the core of the Holy Roman Empire), culminating in the successful creation of a common silver currency, the Reichsguldiner, in 1559." – Gierok [Empire of Silver:]( [A New Monetary History of China]( By Jin Xu "Xu’s book is certainly ambitious, spanning more than a thousand years of Chinese history." And while it "lacks a thread to guide the reader through the myriad details of a disjointed timeline," it "does touch on one of the biggest debates in Chinese monetary history: Was monetization driven by state-mandated taxes in silver, or by an expansion of commerce?" – Gierok [Making Sense of Society]( By Michael Spence A 2022 book argues that the only effective responses to government or market deficiencies come from civil society. When society is “malfunctioning” – for example, owing to deep polarization or fragmentation – that response mechanism is disrupted, and can even stop working altogether. [Read the commentary](. [Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar:]( [A Citizen-First Approach]( By Rohini Nilekani Nilekani's "thoughtful, realistic, and cautiously optimistic blueprint for a healthy society is worthy of attention, reflection, and debate." – Spence [PS. Save 30% on a new PS Digital subscription with our special introductory offer.]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( Project Syndicate publishes and provides, on a not-for-profit basis, original commentary by the world's leading thinkers to more than 500 media outlets in over 150 countries. This newsletter does not entitle the recipient to re-publish any of the content it contains. This newsletter is a service of [Project Syndicate](. [Change your newsletter preferences](. Follow us on [Facebook]( [Twitter]( and [YouTube](. © Project Syndicate, all rights reserved. [Unsubscribe from all newsletters](.