The Devil’s Riches: A Modern History of Greed

A seeming constant in the history of capitalism, greed has nonetheless undergone considerable transformations over the last five hundred years. This multilayered account offers a fresh take on an old topic, arguing that greed was experienced as a moral phenomenon and deployed to make sense of an unjust world. Focusing specifically on the interrelated themes of religion, economics, and health-each of which sought to study and channel the power of financial desire-Jared Poley shows how evolving ideas about greed became formative elements of the modern experience.