This book is NOT a "light read." As a matter of fact, it is a painfully tedious, dry, and mostly dull read. But the insights it provides into the "nature of power" in modern history are priceless.

Tragedy and Hope isn't about money or banking per se... Rather, it's about how the elite use (and always have used) their power and influence to shape the world as they see fit. The author, Dr. Carol Quigley, speaks with the authority of an elite insider. In no uncertain terms he exposes the aims of what he refers to as “the network.” It is important to note his only real “difference of opinion” is in the network’s secretive approach to securing its aims.

“I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960’s, to examine its papers and secret records. I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have, for much of my life, been close to it and to many of its instruments…my chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain unknown....” (Emphasis added)

If you're not quite ready to "snuggle up to" a 1,300 page dissertation, you can "wet your whistle" with any number of other books that draw on Tragedy and Hope as a reference. Books like The Naked Capitalist or The Shadows of Power will be plenty to get you started.