Vincent Burns

What can a Roman coin, a Chumash shell necklace, and a Bitcoin tell us about world history? This book traces the surprising life of money across centuries and civilizations. The Daily Life of Money in History offers an eye-opening look at how humans have exchanged value across time and cultures. Each of the 150 entries explores a single object-beautifully illustrated and deeply contextualized-to uncover how people bought, sold, traded, saved, and survived through the ages. Designed with educators, students, and curious readers in mind, this richly visual volume brings together cultural history, economic life, and global exchange in a highly accessible format. Each object includes origin details, historical purchasing power, and its legacy today-making it an ideal reference for classrooms, libraries, and history lovers alike.

Rincon Point is renowned as the Queen of the Coast, one of the premier surfing spots in the world, but that is only a fragment of its rich history. Before the arrival of Europeans, it was a Chumash village called Shuku. In the 19th century, it was part of Rancho El Rincon, whose owners included a rich but illiterate Californio rancher, an English physician who made house calls by bicycle, and a Chilean pharmacist who dispensed drugs out of an old ship's cabin. It was the site of a scandalous love-triangle murder in the 1870s, a rickety highway on stilts in the 1910s, and a raunchy honky-tonk in the 1920s. Banditos, nudists, movie stars, long-boarders--they have all shaped Rincon Point, a place immortalized by novelists, poets, painters, photographers, and the Beach Boys.