Volume one of Ferguson’s Rothschild history: how a family became Europe’s money prophets between 1798 and 1848.
What this book is about
The House of Rothschild: Money’s Prophets, 1798–1848 covers the founding generation — Mayer Amschel and his sons — as they turn a Frankfurt trading house into a continental credit network during the Napoleonic Wars and the decades after. This is the origin story; the later volume follows the dynasty once it is already a power.
Our take
Start here if you have not read Ferguson on the Rothschilds. It is archival history: letters, bonds, and politics, not a family soap. Pair with ISBN 9780140286625 if you want the later century. Heavy, but it is the book people mean when they say “the Rothschilds built modern finance.”
Who should read this
- Readers beginning Ferguson’s Rothschild project
- Students of Napoleonic and Restoration Europe
- Anyone who wants the 1798–1848 half before the later volume
- History readers who can sit with maps, names, and bond issues
About the author
Niall Ferguson is a historian of money and empire. Money’s Prophets is the first half of his two-volume Rothschild history, built from family archives rather than conspiracy lore.
