This title presents the first accessible, upbeat, engaging and even amusing history of the endlessly fascinating topic of credit and debt, which has shaped civilization in ways even bankers cannot begin to imagine.

It is altogether appropriate that the term applied to today's economic woes is 'credit crunch'. When banks stop lending, even to each other, and when no amount of interest can prompt them, the gears of the world's civilization grind to an ungodly halt. Crunch! From Plato to payday loans, from the Council of Nicea to the "Al Qaeda Reader", and from Shylock to Hitler's "Mein Kampf", Jack Cashill's "Popes and Bankers" relates the colourful and contentious story of how this unlikely lubricant helped create the greatest civilization that the world has ever known, even if today its gears are grinding.