From#160;Silk to Silicon#160;tells the story of who these men and women were, what they did, how they did it, and how their achievements continue to shape our world today. They include:bull; Genghis Khan, who united east and west by conquest and by opening new trade routes built on groundbreaking transportation and management innovations.bull; Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who arose from oppression to establish the most powerful bank the world has seen.bull; Cyrus Field, who became the father of global communications by leading the effort to build the transatlantic telegraph, the forerunner to global radio, TV, and the worldwide Internet.bull; Margaret Thatcher, whose controversial policies opened the gusher of substantially free markets that linked economies across borders.bull; Andy Grove, a Hungarian refugee from the Nazis who built the company-Intel-that figured out how to manufacture complex computer chips on a mass, commercial scale.Through these stories Jeffrey E. Garten finds the common links between these figures and probes critical questions. From Silk to Silicon#160;is an essential book to understanding the past-and the future-of the most powerful force of our times.

The former dean of the Yale School of Management and Undersecretary of Commerce in the Clinton administration chronicles the 1971 August meeting at Camp David, where President Nixon unilaterally ended the last vestiges of the gold standard–breaking the link between gold and the dollar–transforming the entire global monetary system.

Over the course of three days–from August 13 to 15, 1971–at a secret meeting at Camp David, President Richard Nixon and his brain trust changed the course of history. Before that weekend, all national currencies were valued to the U.S. dollar, which was convertible to gold at a fixed rate. That system, established by the Bretton Woods Agreement at the end of World War II, was the foundation of the international monetary system that helped fuel the greatest expansion of middle-class prosperity the world has ever seen.

In making his decision, Nixon shocked world leaders, bankers, investors, traders and everyone involved in global finance. Jeffrey E. Garten argues that many of the roots of America’s dramatic retrenchment in world affairs began with that momentous event that was an admission that America could no longer afford to uphold the global monetary system. It opened the way for massive market instability and speculation that has plagued the world economy ever since, but at the same time it made possible the gigantic expansion of trade and investment across borders which created our modern era of once unimaginable progress.

Based on extensive historical research and interviews with several participants at Camp David, and informed by Garten’s own insights from positions in four presidential administrations and on Wall Street, Three Days at Camp David chronicles this critical turning point, analyzes its impact on the American economy and world markets, and explores its ramifications now and for the future.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.