Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It (University of Texas Press), by H.W. Brands

The 20th century was the Age of the Dollar, but the world champion among currencies staggered through the first decade of the new millennium, weakened by the dot-com bust, 9/11, a pair of costly wars, the housing bubble and the Great Recession. Will the dollar become as worthless as the money issued by the Confederacy or the Continental Congress? Probably not, but as University of Texas history professor H.W. Brands writes in his compact summation of our nation's monetary history, the dollar might not carry as much weight in the future. By 2010 “the decline of the dollar was already limiting America's freedom of action,” he writes. The deficit debate has stymied health care reform, and the Federal Reserve must consider the reaction of China, America's largest creditor.<br /><br />Brands is a historian, not a fortuneteller, and he is careful to draw only measured conclusions about the future from the past. His account of the dollar's development is full of interesting asides. When the paper “greenbacks” were introduced by Abraham Lincoln to finance the Civil War, they were, from the get-go, unsupported by gold, and instead backed only by the faith and credit of the U.S. government. The Supreme Court ruled such paper unconstitutional, but rapidly reversed itself. World War I and its aftermath elevated the dollar's worldwide importance as the United States loaned money to Germany for paying reparations to France and Britain, enabling the latter to pay their war debt to America. World War II cemented the dollar's position as the global reserve currency, a role it is in danger of losing in favor of a “basket of moneys,” a shopping cart of euros, yens and yuans in which no one currency will dominate. (David Luhrssen) <p> </p>