A History of the Global Stock Market

B. Mark Smith spent two decades as a professional trader with CS/First Boston and Goldman Sachs before writing this history, and that experience shows in how he reads the past. The arc is ambitious — from ancient Rome through medieval trading companies to the dot-com era — and he uses it to challenge two persistent myths: that bubbles are inevitable features of markets, and that today's globalization is historically unique. The University of Chicago Press publication ensures editorial rigor, and reviewers consistently praised the balance of readability and depth. The caveats are straightforward: the latter chapters get denser with economic jargon, and two decades of financial history — including the 2008 crisis and the digital-asset era — have accumulated since publication. For the long view on how markets actually work, it still holds up.