Cross Of Gold

In England's Cross of Gold, James Ashley Morrison challenges the conventional view that the UK's ruinous return to gold in 1925 was inevitable. Instead, he offers a new perspective on the struggles among elites in London to define and redefine the gold standard—from the first discussions during the Great War; through the titanic ideological clash between Winston Churchill and John Maynard Keynes; to the final, ill-fated implementation of the "new gold standard." Following World War I, Churchill promised to restore the ancient English gold standard—and thus Britain's greatness. Keynes portended that this would prove to be one of the most momentous—and ill-advised—decisions in financial history. From the vicious peace settlement at Versailles to the Great Depression, the gold standard was central to the worst disasters of the time. Economically, Churchill's move exacerbated the difficulties of repairing economies shattered by war. Politically, it set countries at odds as each endeavored to amass gold, sowing the seeds of further strife. England's Cross of Gold, grounded in masterful archival research, reveals that these events turned crucially on the beliefs of a handful of pivotal policymakers. It recasts the legends of Churchill, Keynes, and their collision, and it shows that the gold standard itself was a metaphysical abstraction rooted more in mythology than material reality.

William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1887 as a young lawyer and rose rapidly in local Democratic Party affairs. In 1890 he was elected to the U.S. Congress in a Democratic landslide and was reelected in 1892, although he failed in a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1894. After the 1894 campaign, Bryan became editor of the Omaha World-Herald, continued his activities as a proponent of "free silver, " and began a successful stint as a Chautauqua lecturer, honing his already considerable oratorical skills. His reputation as a free-silver advocate was such that his delivery of the "Cross of Gold" speech at the 1896 Democratic Convention won him the nomination for president at the age of thirty-six. Bryan's proposal for the unlimited coinage of silver gained him support in the agrarian South and West and opposition in eastern states where banking and mercantile interests were paramount. During the 1896 campaign, Bryan traveled over eighteen thousand miles and made six hundred speeches in twenty-seven states, an unprecedented effort. Bryan lost to McKinley by ninety-five electoral votes, a result that conceals a relatively close popular vote. Although he twice more ran for president, served as Woodrow Wilson's secretary of state, and ended his career at the Scopes "Monkey Trial, " he will always be best remembered for his galvanic address in 1896. Robert W. Cherny is a professor of history at San Francisco State University. He is the author of A Righteous Cause: The Life of William Jennings Bryan.

Bensel argues that Bryan's 'Cross of Gold' address exploited a climate of political passion.

When the venerable Assassin for the Order of the Red Cross of Gold finds himself unable to recall the details of his latest mission, he becomes the victim of a ruthless woman bent on prying ancient secrets from his head by any means necessary. While he searches his muddled mind for answers, he becomes involved in a sort of erotic warfare with two of his captors. He has to fight for his life when his Brothers come to fetch him home?Ǫ with or without his head.

An intriguing view of the Canadian economy before WWI, this study fills a gap in the existing literature on the economic history of Canada. Using improved monetary statistics, the author explains how the business cycle worked under the gold standard, and takes an in-depth look at the roles the banks, the government and the public played in relation to Canada's balance of payments and the gold stock.

'A Cross of Gold: William Jennings Bryan And the Oklahoma Constitution' is the examination of how the Native Americans worked to create a constitution for their own state of Sequoyah but ultimately failed to do so. But while they failed their work led to the foundations for what would become the state of Oklahoma. 'A Cross of Gold' is also the examination of how William Jennings Bryan, a politician and orator forgotten by history, took an interest in what was Oklahoma Territory, a territory wanting to be admitted into the United States. Bryan was seen as a radical by President Theodore Roosevelt and his protege William Howard Taft but his influence and ideas would force Roosevelt and Taft to pay close attention to the upcoming Oklahoma Constitutional Convention and its progressive ideas.