“In seeking to establish the ‘boundaries’ of financial markets, [Preda] provides an exhaustive, fascinating history of the need for and creation of speculators, investors, chartists, and finally financial economists. . . . This is a fascinating read, especially for those interested in a thorough understanding of markets, and a challenge to arguments for the supposed inevitability of market structures in modern society.”

Choice

"The sociological perspective offered by Preda provides economic historians interesting ways to frame their own research into the ongoing development of financial capitalism."

Journal of Economic History

“Indispensable to any historian seeking to understand how financial markets came to occupy a central place in the modern economy.”

Technology and Culture

“Preda succeeds in transforming financial capitalism into materially situated phenomenology. Framing Finance is subtle, substantial, sustained, and enlightening.”

Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University

“Framing Finance looks at the history of finance from a completely new perspective, combining sociology, history, economics, and literary and cultural studies. Drawing on his original historical data, Preda proposes several innovative theoretical ideas and concepts that may well become household notions in writings on finance.”

Karen Knorr Cetina, University of Chicago

“Alex Preda takes a strikingly original approach to understanding the role of finance in modern society. His book explores finance as conceptual technology—an important tool of thought. This technology has a fascinating history of development that takes place through a social and economic institutional fabric; with the full dynamics of innovation, imitation, and the inexorable flow of market data. Humans adapt to tools just as tools solve human problems, and financial technology demands profound realignment of processes of gathering, aggregating, and interpreting information from the marketplace. This book teaches us that culture and imagination of modern society is much more deeply influenced by finance—its markets and models—than anyone might have suspected.”

William N. Goetzmann, International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management

“How did financial investors and dealers come to seem like scientists? Alex Preda’s important book shows us how technical devices transformed the ‘frauds’ and ‘fools’ of the eighteenth century into today’s mathematically armed speculators. By showing us how finance became a culturally legitimate pursuit, Framing Finance offers a new understanding of the origins of our current economic crisis.”

Caitlin Zaloom, New York University