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"Making a Modern Central Bank" examines a revolution in monetary and economic policy. This authoritative guide explores how the Bank of England shifted its traditional mechanisms to accommodate a newly internationalized financial and economic system. The Bank's transformation into a modern inflation-targeting independent central bank allowed it to focus on a precisely defined task of monetary management, ensuring price stability. The reframing of the task of central banks, however, left them increasingly vulnerable to the financial crisis. James vividly outlines and discusses significant historical developments in UK monetary policy, and his knowledge of modern European history adds rich context to archival research on the Bank of England's internal documents. A worthy continuation of the previous official histories of the Bank of England, this book also reckons with contemporary issues, shedding light on the origins of the growing backlash against globalization and the European Union.

Harold James is the Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies and Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University. He studies economic and financial history and modern European history. James was a Fellow of Peterhouse for eight years before joining Princeton University in 1986. In 2004 he was awarded the Helmut Schmidt Prize for Economic History and in 2005 the Ludwig Erhard Prize for writing about economics. His most recent books include "Family Capitalism," Harvard University Press, 2006; "The Creation and Destruction of Value: The Globalization Cycle(link is external)," Harvard University Press, 2009; "Making the European Monetary Union(link is external)," Harvard University Press, 2012; "The Euro and the Battle of Economic Ideas"(link is external) (with Markus K. Brunnermeier and Jean-Pierre Landau), Princeton University Press, 2016.

This event is co-sponsored with the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy & Affairs and the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies.