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A History of the Federal Reserve, vol. 1: 1913-1951. By Allan H. Meltzer. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. xiv, 800 pp. $75.00, ISBN 0-226-51999-6.)
Allan H. Meltzer is one of the world's leading experts on monetary economics. In this book, long in the making, he provides a history of the Federal Reserve System from its founding in 1913 to 1951 set within a wide-ranging discussion of the political and economic history of the period. Meltzer has studiously read the minutes, correspondence, and internal documents of the Federal Reserve Board and many related public and private documents, and he has produced a history of unprecedented scope and persuasiveness.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect is the importance Meltzer places on the role of ideas and on the role of the inventors of economic ideas, the economists....