The ascent of Niall Ferguson

Nestled in the acknowledgments at the end of Niall Ferguson’s new “financial history of the world” lies a sentence that is as remarkable as it is nonchalant. “Like my last three books,” the historian writes, “The Ascent of Money was from its earliest inception a television series as well as a book.” He goes on to express gratitude to collaborators at both Great Britain’s Channel 4 and America’s PBS. This is a gracious and appropriate thing to do. Given that few other academics on the planet would ever need to offer such thanks, it is also an indication of the extraordinarily charmed career that the still-young professor has led thus far.