In 1934, Joseph A. Brandt, then editor of the University of Oklahoma Press, asked me to write a work that would explain in simple terms the devaluation of the dollar that had just occurred and the events that made this devaluation necessary. It was evident that an explanation of these happenings could not be reached through any of the monetary theories then current, all of them in eclipse with the collapse of the economic structure following the Great Crash of the stock market in 1929. A deeper examination was necessary, one that went to the nature of man's experience with money. A survey of this experience was indicated. What wisdom did the records offer?