The Age of Mammon and Mars

Roosevelt once claimed that 'no major war has ever been won or lost through lack of money.' He was wrong.Mammon and Mars explains why Roosevelt was incorrect by telling the neglected story of how Mammon and Mars, Money and War, came together as never before during the era of the two world wars. Faced with conflict on a new and terrible scale, states struggled to finance their own immense war efforts and undermine their enemies. Money became a crucial weapon. Studying how that happened helps us to see the world wars in a fresh and original light and challenges some of the traditional tales told about their causes, conduct and consequences. Those conflicts also redefined the meaning of money itself, blurred the boundaries between war and peace, and reset the relationship between citizen and state. Jonathan Boff tells the highly topical story of how first the UK, and then the USA, pioneered new forms of economic statecraft. Based on meticulous research in multiple languages and archives both sides of the Atlantic, Mammon and Mars integrates approaches from military, political and economic history to tell these neglected stories, explain how we got here, and suggest lessons that might help guide policy tomorrow.