The Greenback Era: A Social and Political History of American Finance, 1865–1879

Summary

Unger traces the fierce battles over money and currency in the years right after the Civil War, when farmers, bankers, and reformers fought over greenbacks, hard money, and the resumption of specie payments. He shows how moral conviction, religious belief, and class interest all shaped the way Americans argued about inflation and the national debt. The book reframes a dry financial subject as a window into Gilded Age politics and the moral imagination of an entire generation.