"Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went" by John Kenneth Galbraith

A while ago libertarians were talking about how the late 1800s was the golden age of freedom in America, which is odd considering that was before women's suffrage and during Jim Crow. JKG's "Money" illustrates what they must like about that time:

There can never have been a time when it was as good to be rich as in the late years of the last century. There was no income tax ... There was the rewarding contrast with the vast majority which was still poor. ... In 1900 prices had been generally falling since the end of the Civil War ... Men of substance could reasonably expect to gain in wealth not only from accumulation of money but from a continuing increase in the purchasing power of what they had. ...

The ability of the rich and their acolytes to see social virtue in what serves their interest and convenience and to depict as ridiculous or foolish what does not was never better manifested than in their support of gold and their condemnation of paper money. The parallel tendency of economists to find virtue in what the reputable and affluent applaud was similarly evident.