Gold: The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal

Since the 2008 financial crisis, the price of gold has skyrocketed—in three years, it has more than doubled from $800 an ounce to $1,900. This massive spike kicked off an unprecedented global gold-mining and exploration boom, much bigger than the Gold Rush of the 1800s. In Gold, acclaimed author Matthew Hart takes you on an unforgettable journey around the world and through history to tell the incredible story of how gold became the world's most precious commodity. Beginning with a dispatch from the crime-ridden, dangerous inferno of the world's deepest mine, Hart pulls back to survey gold's tempestuous past. From the earliest civilizations—6,000 years ago, when gold was an icon of sacred and kingly power—Hart tracks its evolution, through conquest, murder, and international mayhem, into the speculative casino-chip that the metal has become.